The Three Musketeers (2011):

Starring:

Matthew Macfadyen - Athos

Luke Evans - Aramis

Ray Stevenson - Porthos

Logan Lerman - D'Artagnan

Christoph Waltz - Cardinal Richelieu

Milla Jovovich - Milady de Winter

Orlando Bloom - Duke Of Buckingham

Mads Mikkelsen - Rochefort

Gabriella Wilde - Constance

James Corden - Planchet

Juno Temple - Queen

Til Schweiger - Cagliostro

Freddie Fox -King  Louis XIII 

Director:

Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil Franchise; Death Race; Alien Vs Predator)

Rotten Tomatoes: 26%

Flixster: 41%

Synopsis:

The hot-headed young D'Artagnan joins forces with three rogue Musketeers in this reboot of Alexandre Dumas' story. They must stop the evil Richlieu and face off with Buckingham and the treacherous Milady.

Review:

It's a supposedly imaginary sci-fi retelling of the classic Three Musketeers story. I would have been perfectly fine with this version, even past all of the just unrelenting onslaught of CGI & Green Screens, had it actually not taken itself so seriously. Unfortunately it seems like they were taking it seriously. The modernizing of the story does give it a new twist & some new aspects, but how modern is too modern? The film was based on drastic extremes. Everything in the film goes from one extreme to the other. First you have the acting. The Musketeers themselves have the extremes of Luke Evans goes to the serious, intense & dramatic acting. Ray Stevenson goes to the extreme of over the top, silly, drunk & feisty. Then you have the medium extreme of Matthew Macfadyen at the medium of serious & slightly comedic. Now anyone who has read this blog before knows my disdain & dislike for Milla Jovovich, because she plays the same character in every film she's in, which is Alice from Resident Evil. We'll when the director of the film is the director of the Resident Evil franchise, you can pretty much guarantee that is the role she is going to play. The slightest difference is that she has the slightest hint of comedy added into her role. But all in all she is the same Euro Trash heroine that she always plays (although she isn't the heroine in this one, but still acts the same). Then there is Orlando Bloom. How has it been this long into his career & no one has noticed that he is a terrible actor? Sure maybe he was the highest paid actor between 2000-2010. But that's only because he was a smaller role, Legolas in LOTR's & the most annoying & worst part of the Pirates' franchise. Name one movie where he steals the show? You can't. Even in Kingdom Of Heaven, his thunder is stolen by an incredible performance by Edward Norton. Just because he's British & attractive, doesn't mean he is a good actor. However, how about the incredible rise of Christoph Waltz? I mean the man literally went from a no name Austrian actor  doing mainly German films to one of the most sought after character & even lead actors in America right now. He has been able to portray such hilarious & yet diabolical villains & soon will be transitions to a Hero role in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained". He is definitely  the best part of this film. Mads Mikkelsen (whom some may remember as the scar faced bad guy in "Casino Royale") was also really we'll cast & has a great character & look in the film. As far as modernizing the story up, you obviously can take a more modern approach to sword & fist fighting that makes it much different than your average renaissance style, but on the opposite scale you have flying ships & machine gun cannons. Also a major factor that took away from the interesting concept of making it more modern was the fact that 80% of the film is shot in front of a green screen. Sure maybe that appeals to some people, I know that there are certain films that I really do like that are strongly influenced by green screen, the fact about this one is that it's very poorly done green screen. It's always so noticeable when it's not done very well because you can see the clear difference between actors & backdrop. Overall it's just too silly & has too much ridiculousness to actually be that entertaining. It's not horrible, I wasn't mad that I had watched it, it just wasn't anything special.

49%

Lead Acting: 8/15
Supporting Cast: 6/15
Plot: 5/10
Compared To The Genre: 4/10
Cinematography: 14/20
Intrigue: 10/20
Extra: 2/10