Product: The Musketeer (2001)
Rating: 3.0
Another version - with a twist
Upon hearing that yet another version of Alexander Dumas' classic tale "The Three Musketeers" would be making its way onto the big screen, my friend was just a bit skeptical."They're making another one?" he said in a less than an enthusiastic tone. "How many times can they remake it?"Fearing that my friends response may be duplicated by more than a few moviegoers, Universal Pictures made sure that their Musketeer film, "The Musketeer," would be unlike any rendition of Dumas' tale you've ever seen before.Unfortunately, a little more similarity to other Musketeer movies probably would have propelled "The Musketeer" from average movie fare to cinematic classic.Lest you think this is the same old story you've heard and seen several times before, a swift warning that "The Musketeer" is based on the novel by Dumas, not an exact interpretation.The core element of the novel, a young, would be musketeer plays a pivotal role in stopping the Cardinal and his henchmen from stopping the Kings of England and France from signing a peace treaty is intact, but the rest of the story is hit and miss.Imagine a Sherlock Holmes movie in which Watson has only a cameo role in the film and you'll begin to have a good idea of where "The Musketeer" is heading.In screenwriter Gene Quintano's adaptation, D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) witnesses the death of his parents and vows to become a Musketeer like his father before him. One of his father's friends trains D'Artagnan in the ways of all things Musketeer and by the time he arrives to Paris to join the King's elite fighting force, he is more than up to the challenge. Everything sounds fine so far, right? Well, here's where things get a bit complicated.The film doesn't bother with the three incidents in which D'Artagnan first encounters Athos, Aramis and Porthos, resulting in the three pals challenging him in three separate duels. Before D'Artagnan begins his first duel, a band of the Cardinal's men attack and are easily defeated by the musketeers and their newfound friend. Instead, D'Artagnan simply meets Aramis and Porthos who are hard at work on reaching the bottom of their wine bottles while he runs into Athos in a bar, which would could conclude from the film is the Musketeer's sole hangout. Worse, D'Artagnan has to convince the others to assist him in protecting the King, the Musketeer's sworn duty.By forgoing the pivotal meetings and subsequent battle where the musketeers befriend D'Artagnan, the audience is asked to buy into too much, specifically that the proud musketeers would follow a lowly, albeit brave, commoner.Also rather hastily paced is D'Artagnan's romance of one of the Queen's handmaidens, Constance (Mena Suvari). The relationship is so poorly developed that it feels like Quinatno threw it in at the last minute as opposed to it being a pivotal aspect of the film.For the most part, the cast seems overwhelmed by their roles, but that could probably be more attributed to Quinatno's script, which assumes you know enough of the musketeer lore and are more than familiar with the characters.Catherine Deneuve handles her role as the courageous Queen of France perfectly and Tim Roth (Febre, the Cardinal's main henchman) as always is superb in the villain role. Roth practically carries the movie on his own and at least makes you care when he finally gets his comeuppance.Chambers is merely adequate as D'Artagnan, but it may be fairer to say the script doesn't give him a lot to work with in terms of really capturing the hearts of the audience.The film's advertising focuses heavily on the fact that Hong Kong choreographer Xin Xin Xiong designed the fight sequences.Director Peter Hyams does an outstanding job capturing all the action and keeps the movie moving at an even pace. The fights are indeed dazzling, but make up such a minimal part of the movie that they're not as epic as the commercials would lead you to believe.The costumes make it hard to distinguish who's who when there's more than two people fighting on the screen at one time as well.Remember how everyone began using "The Matrix"-type special effects after the success of the 1999 Keanu Reeves action film? With the raves of the fight scenes in "Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon," don't be surprised if mid-air flights become commonplace on the big screen. There are some moments when you may experience déjà vu, but for the most part, the action scenes are completely original."The Musketeer" is a movie with great action, effects and a likable cast that's just begging for a better story to replace the script, providing a new look at Dumas' classic that no one was clamoring for. Ironically, in this case, a better story was written. It just wasn't used.