Product: The Musketeer (2001)
Rating: 2.0
Missing the Target....
"The Three Musketeers" has been a Hollywood staple for decades. 2001's "The Musketeer" was an attempt to update the franchise using the latest in movie special effects and a focus on the character of D'Artagnan. Unfortunately, it falls short of being a successful adaption.In "The Musketeer", Justin Chambers plays D'Artagnan as a hunky superwarrior, capable of fantastic feats of martial arts and swordsmanship on a par with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The movie's traditional story gets buried beneath a series of set-piece fight spectaculars. The fight scenes are interesting, but the plotline stringing them together has become paper-thin. The traditional plot complication involving the Duke of Buckingham and the French Queen is told in a confusing manner, while the three Musketeers themselves seem to have little to do with the story. Only Tim Roth as the Cardinal's evil henchman shines at all. Young and attractive actress Mena Suvari is prominent as the Queen's aide and as a love-interest for D'Artagnan, but her very modern and very immodest female personna wrong-foots the role. Catherine Deneuve seems uncomfortable as the Queen, as if looking for the nearest exit. Justin Chambers is wooden in delivery and lacking in the on-screen charisma we have come to expect from D'Artagnan as a character.This movie will be entertaining primarily to those with no expectations of the traditional story of "The Three Musketeers."