Review of The Three Musketeers (2011) by Mike

Title: The Three Musketeers (2011)

Original UK Release Date: 12^th October 2011

Original US Release Date: 21^st October 2011

UK Rating: 12

US Rating: PG-13

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Genre: Adventure

Plot: D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) travels to Paris to become a Musketeer but gets caught up in treachery and deception which could plunge France and England into war.

Mike's Review

This is an updated version of the classic story written by Alexandre Dumas père. There have been many film adaptations of the story and this is the latest.

The film follows D’Artagnan as he tries to join the legendary Musketeers. He meets up with the famous three Musketeers and assists them in preventing war between France and England.

This film tries a few new things with the story and introduces flying ships! By flying ships I mean they get a ship and attach an airship to it and you now have flying ships. The other change they give us is less action and less sword fights. I couldn’t help compare the two other modern adaptations of this story, The Three Musketeers (1993) and The Musketeer (2001). I really hoped that the makers of this would combine the great elements of these films, the great cast and the fun and adventure of the 1993 version and the spectacular fight scenes of the 2001 version to produce something great. But it doesn’t. It often comes close with the action with the use of slow motion but that is it. For the most part the characters are forgetful, the fight scenes are standard and the script is basic. If you look at the 1993 version made by Disney, you have a great cast, a great script, awesome villain and fun, exciting action scenes. This missed a great opportunity to do something amazing with a classic story, using modern film making. The use of the flying ships could have been so good but it was underutilized.

However all is not lost, the film has Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham. He steals every scene he is in as the cocky and arrogant Duke. You look forward to his scenes and wish he could have played a more prominent role in the film. He is by far the best character in the film. It almost seems that he knew that this film needed some fun injected into it and made it his mission to steal every moment he was on screen.

I really love the 1993 version of the film and maybe this is why I was disappointed with this one. I guess I expected too much. If you haven’t seen the 1993 film please watch this updated one, you should enjoy it. Then watch the 1993 version and see what this one could have been.

6 out of 10

Additional Information

Stand out performance: Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham

Trailer