The Musketeer
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Movie Reviews of The Musketeer
Movie Review: "You have an interesting fighting style."
Summary: 3 Stars
Fourteen years after his parents were murdered D'Artagnan arrives in Paris to pursue his dream of becoming a King's Royal Musketeer. That sentence alone should cue readers of Alexander Dumas's THE THREE MUSKETEERS that this film is very much a loose adaptation. There are perhaps three truly extreme departures. The presence of the menacing Febre (Tim Roth). The absence of Milady de Winter. And D'Artagnan's fighting style which is a more dynamic sort of fencing as done by Hong Kong cinema. Purists will certainly be up in arms. I ain't mad at them.
And yet some things remain the same. Young D'Artagnan is still dashing and daring and a fierce stickler for honor. The Musketeers are still fiercely loyal to the King, in fact, so loyal that they've fallen out of favor, what with the crafty Cardinal Richelieu pulling political strings, widening his sphere of influence while sapping the King's power base. In Paris D'Artagnan meets up with what's left of the Musketeers, and these are a pretty slovenly lot of swordsmen. Whoever wrote the screenplay plays fast and loose with the source material. Maybe he only read the cliff notes. D'Artagnan still romances the Queen's lovely chamber maid (a listless Mena Suvari). There's still that intrigue with Lord Buckingham and a secret mission for the Queen. This time, though, the Queen (Catherine Deneuve) herself goes along for the ride, masquerading as a peasant woman.
You scan the credits and you may notice Catherine Deneuve, Stephen Rea, and Tim Roth's names scrolling up. That's an exalted supporting cast, except that, really, only Tim Roth makes an impression as the skeevy eye-patched Febre. Roth really does excel at oozing sheer malice (just check out ROB ROY). However, Stephen Rea, who's best at roles in which he can internalize, isn't quite a showy enough presence to pass as Richelieu. And I guess they got it right with titling the film THE MUSKETEER, because the story hones in on D'Artagnan, almost to the exclusion of his fellow Musketeers. Aramis, Athos and Porthos, even more than ever, are reduced to glorified sidekick status. I did enjoy Nick Moran as Aramis, though.
The many moments of derring-do are gratifying, and there's a sense that the story is sacrificed in service of the hard-charging action. I don't know how much of his own stunts were performed by lead actor Justin Chambers. I'm thinking not many, but these are still pretty astonishing stunts. Gene Kelly, when he played D'Artagnan in 1948, performed some excellent tumbling while dueling but his version never approached the sheer athleticism and dazzle of this D'Artagnan. Justin Chambers (or his stunt double) is a whirling dervish, swordfighting with flair and fury, and executing some frenetic gymnastics. As one character observes to D'Artagnan: "You have an interesting fighting style." Except I'm fairly certain fencing in 17th century France didn't involve wire work.
Still, Gene Kelly's THE THREE MUSKETEERS is loads better than this one. Heck, even the Charlie Sheen version was better. And for the best film adaptation, you need to get your hands on Richard Lester's THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973). Regarding THE MUSKETEER, see it, if you must, for the cool fighty fights and maybe for the bits of snark peppered throughout. 2.5 stars out of 5 for this one.
Movie Review: Doing a Honk Kong twist on The Three Musketeers
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Musketeer" is a dark telling of the Alexander Dumas classic "The Three Musketeers"; not dark in the sense of brooding and foreboding, but dark in the sense that most of the scenes are under lit big time. My guess is that it is easier to hide the wirework under such circumstances, but maybe director Peter Hyams thought he was being artistic. The hook with this film is that the fight choreographer is by Xin-Xin Xiong (who also does stunt work for Tim Roth's character in the climatic fight). This is clearly going to be a make it or break it issue for most viewers, as to whether they are going to buy Hong Kong action sequences in a film with King Louis XIII. I am open to such things in theory but reserve judgment until I see them in practice, and the first big sequence in the film is the best as D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) takes on an inn full of swordsmen, fighting two or three at a time, while dodging over and dancing on barrels. The initial part is pretty good, but then there is stuff involving the ceiling and the big fight at the finish is more about ladders than it is about swords (although the end is really an old school cliché). So the action sequences are okay, given that the best one comes first.
The part where I worried about "The Musketeer" is when the credit rolled and the names Catherine Deneue as the Queen, Mena Suvari as Francesca bon Ansau, Stephen Rea as Cardinal Richelieu, and Tim Roth as Febre the Man in Black, before we get to former Calvin Klein model Justin Chambers as D'Artagnan (good look, no act). Now, Deneue is a big name but this is not her movie. These first five names also make it very clear why the title of this film is not "The Three Musketeers" (there have been 20 of those anyway), because Aramis (Nick Moran), Porthos (Steve Speirs), and Athos (Jan Gregor Kremp) are just supporting characters in this version. This leads us to the biggest problem with this film, which is that screenwriter Gene Quintano goes out of his way to make this story different. Maybe the assumption is that the target audience will not know the original story. Besides making the other Musketeers minor characters, the biggest change is that Febre is now the major villain, breaking off the leash of Cardinal Richelieu, turning the master power politician into a sputtering bystander. But once you throw out the book, why should a little thing like history concern anyone?
Ultimately, "The Musketeer" is another one of those films where the trailer is better than the movie (maybe they should let the people who make the trailers make the movies). The DVD extras are nothing special, although I would have thought that if you were going to do a featurette on the fight sequences you should actually get into the fight sequences. Otherwise we are right back to trumpeting the fact that this is "The Three Musketeers" told with Hong Kong action sequences. That should have been the starting point for this film, not the end point.
Movie Review: "The Musketeer": Mindless Escapism
Summary: 3 Stars
Having seen a sneak preview of the movie, "The Musketeer" I can say this: It is NOT the greatest film ever made. It does not have the best acting, best directing, or best script. But it does do what one would expect of a late summer blockbuster--that is, provide mindless fun for the viewers.The story, from "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas, draws away from the book, and focuses mainly on the character of D'Artangnan, who seeks to become a musketeer, and ends up in a battle to save France from war. Justin Chambers, as the young hero, is not going to win any awards, but he does have his moments, and is pretty good in the role of the stalwart hero. (The story, by the way, is your basic movie adventure, so you'll know to expect all the cliches) The "three musketeers" of the novel are given brief walk-on roles, and steal their scenes. Mena Suvari and Catherine Deneuve as the love interest and the Queen, respectively, are both beautiful and intelligent. Stephen Rea as the conniving Cardinal Richeleu is a somber, sinister mastermind--much like the character of Senator Palpatine in "Star Wars: Episode I". Tim Roth is very good, both funny and menacing, as the evil, one-eyed villain Febre who shares a personal battle with D'Artangnan. Roth gets all the best lines, and is a welcome presence.
This is one of the only recent period pieces, besides "A Knight's Tale", that has modern-day sensibilities.
Included are the masterful, and breath-taking action/fight scenes, coreographed by Hong Kong legend, Xin-Xin Xiong. The opening battle in the tavern is an excellent display of his talent, and one of the highlights of the film. Another is the chase/battle atop a coach and horses. But the action really takes off in the final battle, including an army of musketeers facing off against the villains, and showing D'Artangnan hanging by a rope from a tower in a mid-air battle with the bad guys. This all builds up to the final face-off between D'Artangnan and the evil Febre--arguably the best fight scene in the film, that has the warriors flying through the air and atop falling ladders. And it's one of the best fights since the three-way duel in "Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace".
The costumes and set design are rather good, and the music by David Arnold is reminescent of the fun scores of the olden days of swashbuckling films: including "The Sea Hawk", "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones", "Jurassic Park", and "The Mask of Zorro".
While the film is basically a brainless excursion, it is a rather fun one. So don't come expecting to see the greatest action film or the best adaptation of Dumas's tale. You won't find great acting and magnificant storytelling. You've come to see the amazing fight scenes, and to have a mindless blast of roller-coaster fun.
Movie Review: A Little Disappointing: A. Dumas in Hong Kong Action Style
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me give you a quiz: "The Musketeer" is a very unique film in the US movie box-office history, but how is it? Guess. If "The Musketeer" should be remembered in the Hollywood movie history, it is not because it's the great action flick, nor an Oscar winner. It is very unique because it is a film that took the No. 1 of box-office hit chart of America, and it features French icon Cathrine Deneuve as its star. That makes this film something, isn't it? (But, though she takes the first billing of the credit, her role is slightly better than a cameo. Strange.)
Actually, the film's greatest merit is its superb cast -- besides Deneuve, you got Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, and Tim Roth. But how come this film is not exciting? Though action scenes are good, the story is dull, and the film lose its focus s as it goes on and on. In short, what does D'Artagnan (Justine Chambers, seen with Jennifer Lopez in "The Wedding Planner"), the hero of the film, really want to do, we cannot comprehend.
The problem is the script by Gene Quintano, whose previous records include "Sudden Death" of Peter Hyams, and ... well, "Loaded Weapon 1." Some complain that Dumas's classic story was changed mercilessly, but that, in fact, is not the point. (Dumas himself didn't write every sentence of his book, hiring many assistants.) The real problem is that the film doesn't know what it wants to do. Athos, Porthos, & Aramis appear as if an excuse for using the name of Dumas while Mena Suvari's character is thrown into a simple revenge story of D'Atragnan. AND we got Deneuve in the Royal Court of France; AND we see Stephen Rea as Cardinal.... Oh, this is too much!!
The main attraction, and probably the real hero, of this film is its great stuntwork cordinateded by Xin Xin-Xiong, who had been long working with Jet Li in his Hong-Kong era. His gravity-defying actions using wire seem to end in varied results, but the best of them simply reaches state-of-art. His stunts intentionally using vertical movement are executed on the ceiling of bar, on the window sill, on the turret of castle, and delicately-balanced ladders. And one of them, obviously done John Ford's "The Stagecoach" in mind, is marvellous.
As a whole, "The Musketeer" is a wasted oppotunity. You may avoid the name of Hyams because of "End of Days" disaster, but he is usually capable of constructing good action sequences. However, inspite of stunning action stunts, the exciting feeling he produced in "Narrow Margin" or "Capricorn 1" is somehow missing here.
Movie Review: Weak lead drags action-packed MUSKETEER
Summary: 3 Stars
Alexandre Dumas' classic novel of swashbuckling derring-do, "The Three Musketeers" has long been a favorite of film-makers ever since the silent days of Douglas Fairbanks. From the definitive version with Michael York, Oliver Reed and Faye Dunaway to the extremely campy Disney version with Tim Curry and Charlie Sheen, this tale never ceases to entertain. This latest version uses the old revenge sub-plot in which young D'artagnan (Justin Chambers) not only seeks to become a Musketeer, but avenge his parents' murder at the hands of the villianous Febre' (Tim Roth). In an attempt to "freshen up" the classic adventure, director Peter Hyams uses the classic fight choreography of martial arts specialist Xin-Xin Xiong. In that regard, the movie is a success as the fight sequences are quite amazing. However, the screenplay ignores the rich characters of Dumas' plot while basically reducing the classic trio of Athos, Porthos and Aramis to little more than minor supporting roles. If the role of D'artagnan had been played by a strong actor, it might've worked. However, a rather bland and flat performance by Justin Chambers in the lead as the heroic D'artagnan nearly sinks the entire enterprise. While he looks the part and handles the action scenes well, Chambers seems to have left all emotion on the cutting-room floor. As a result, Mena Suvari tries hard as his love interest, but has nowhere to go. As for the other Musketeers, only Steven Spiers as Porthos comes across with any sense of depth. Jean-Pierre Castaldi provides light humor as the wry mentor/servant Planchet. Catherine Deneuve is a regal delight as the Queen, while Stephen Rea is solid in his role as the crafty Cardinal Richeleu. Tim Roth is sneering perfection as the sinister Febre', despite the fact that his eyepatch has long become a cliche' in Musketeer filmmaking. Hyams directs the whole thing with a sure hand and is mostly successful in presenting the time period of the story. It's a shame that Chamber's performance drags this film down so much as this flick had a lot of potential. If you enjoy fight choreography, I do recommend this film. But if you want to see this story done right in all respects, see the 2 part Michael York films: THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS.