Hollywood seems to be lacking in original ideas. If they can’t revamp an older movie and call it a prequel they turn to books for inspiration, to varying degrees of success. The remake of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers is one of the better efforts. It walks the fine line between cheesy and awesome, and though the schmaltz sometimes wins out, it doesn’t detract from the heroic, feel-good dynamic of the story. It also manages to revitalize a classic tale of heroism and fighting for what is right.
The writers can be credited with sticking to the original plot. Young D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) travels to Paris to join the now retired Musketeers: Athos (Matthew MacFadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and Aramis (Luke Evans). Together they must foil an attempt to start a war between Britain and France, ignited by the crooked Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) by retrieving the young Queen’s necklace from the Duke of Buckingham’s (Orlando Bloom) personal vault in the Tower of London.
The plot is rather straightforward, but its simplicity allows for a rabble-rousing hour-and-a-half of explosions, fencing duels, and flying ships to take over your imagination with little resistance. The steampunk universe is one of a corrupt cardinal ruling through a young, naïve, and love-struck king, where the villains wear black and war is fought on Da Vinci’s secret war machines. It’s reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes remake, and that’s not a bad thing.
The film reaches a happy medium in employing 3D technology for both depth and texture, and its more classic use of simulating objects flying directly towards your face. The most striking part of this film is the mise-en-scene, and having these elaborate, gilded sets, which look like Renaissance tableaus, brought to life is fantastic. Coupled with flying cannon fodder and fire pouring out of flying ships, the 3D really works.
What’s more, Paul Haslinger’s original score is fantastic, taking the intensity of a full orchestra and fitting it to the silver screen. The battle scenes are tense and the music swells and falls at all the right places. It’s enough to carry you through the movie if you let yourself get wrapped up in it.
The movie is simply a thinly veiled coming-of-age story where love eventually conquers and virtue is rewarded, but what’s wrong with that? It’s an archetype that works, and the characters are classic heroes that are complemented by the knee-slap humour and epic battles on rooftops.
Overall, for such a light-hearted flick, it manages to successfully address one of the biggest challenges faced by movies: the translation of book to film, especially one with as much history and influence as The Three Musketeers. This movie manages to be a brand new film about a story that’s already been told, and that’s impressive considering all the disasters we’ve seen before.
