The Musketeer

[webwizard333]

Yes, they're doing a remake, but I must say that judging on the preview it's going to be a good movie. I espcially enjoyed the end of the trailor with the fighting on the ladders! :) Now that was cool!!! :cool:

[Shanamir Duntak]

Could you post the link to the preview?

[webwizard333]

www.apple.com/trailers/un...eteer.html (http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/the_musketeer.html)

That should work.

[IronParrot]

It looks great, and I'll be seeing it for sure. Except that ladder part is a TOTAL RIPOFF of Once Upon A Time In China, by the looks of it...

[Shanamir Duntak]

Wow... Incredible swashbuckling scenes...

I have to say, I've been playing a RPG (real life one, that is, not on a board) for the last 6 month. It's set in the 1600' , and I find that preview is quite inspiring...

I'm certainly going to see it on the Big Screen

[Shanamir Duntak]

Legendary Hong Kong action choreographer Xin Xin Xiong (Once Upon a Time in China) designed the film’s dazzling fight sequences

So, it's not really a rip-off, he just re-used one of his ideas.

[IronParrot]

Actually, Tsui Hark was the fight choreographer on OUATIC 1 and 2.

Xin Xin Xiong did fight choreography on 2 and 3, and acted in 3 himself.

His name is also great for name games. :)

[Shanamir Duntak]

Who did the choreography for the 2nd OUATIC? Tsui Hark or Xin Xin?

[Shanamir Duntak]

Anyway, I quoted the synopsis on the official website

[Film Hobbit]

Looks like Mission Impossible 2 with swords.

Seriously, if you don't care about literary integrity much, this could be fun. The moves look quite good.

[Shanamir Duntak]

I don't mind integrity neither... If find it to be a new, refreshing view of the 3 Musk.

[IronParrot]

I checked. OUATIC 2 was directed by Tsui Hark, but fight choreography was done by Yuen Wo-Ping ( The Matrix, CTHD)

[IronParrot]

SUMMARY

A retelling of The Three Musketeers focusing exclusively on D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers), whose fencing style is laden with Hong Kong acrobatics.


RECOMMENDED FOR:

People who are willing to sit through a lot of tripe for a few fight sequences.


REVIEW

I knew this movie was in trouble as soon as the decidedly cheap opening titles appeared, realizing that the movie had just compressed the first half-hour of Braveheart into two minutes.

At that point, it was readily evident that this movie was pure camp, and existed only as a concept film to adapt the Cliff Notes to The Three Musketeers with better action sequences than in existing versions. And as if the title was not enough of a clue already, the film goes on to demonstrate that the clichéd appearance of the "All for one, and one for all!" pledge is entirely bunk, and the movie sends pretty much every major character to the bench while D'Artagnan makes a valiant attempt to steal the show.

That attempt, in turn, is only partially successful. It fails primarily because Justin Chambers' performance is recurrently annoying, for lack of a better word; he has no idea whether his accent should be American, British, French or that of any other language short of Gungan. This is likely also the fault director Peter Hyams to define specific parameters in this regard. Not surprisingly, where the role of D'Artagnan and the movie as a whole are at least somewhat successful is in the action sequences.

The action sequences, to be frank, would have been far more impressive if seen on set instead of on film. This is a case where unwise editing actually dumbs down the excitement on screen. Perfectly good fight sequences that could have been marvelous are reduced to being simply good because the better angles are used less often than those that do not have as good a vantage point of the action. The requisite bar fight near the beginning of the film would have been stunning if it was not interpolated with unnecessarily intercut closeups of D'Artagnan's face.

Otherwise, the fights in The Musketeer are fairly solid. The final climactic conflict is at points a shameless ripoff of Once Upon A Time In China, though not nearly to the extent the trailer suggests. Other sequences are exciting, and suffer only from their brevity and scarcity. Simply put, The Musketeer was not campy enough. It paid no attention to plot or characters, but could have benefitted from sacrificing the two entirely, as this year's earlier Kiss of the Dragon demonstrated with its over-the-top string of fight after gory fight. Too much time is wasted on the movie's weakness: the loose adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

This should not have been so. One dialogue scene follows another in quick succession, hastily edited without refinement. Unfortunately, the extraordinarily fast pace of the scenes does not manage to keep the film from sagging; it speaks to an audience that wants some fighting, and does not satisfy in quantity.

One saving grace of this film is Tim Roth performing the villainous role of Fèbre. This, not his performance annoying and overly breathy General Thade in the Burton remake of Planet of the Apes, is a fine example of a snide antagonist who makes the audience want to hate him. Tim Roth exemplifies this sort of role, even working under campy writing. It is unfortunate that he too is underused.

It is not difficult to provide a succinct summary of what to expect in The Musketeer. It is by no means a good film. However, it does feature some good action sequences. If it were under the wing of a more capable director, and knew better than to take a single concept of applying Hong Kong choreography to The Three Musketeers and try to run with it for two hours, it could have been great.

[Sakata]

fighting on ladders looked cool, but not really very realistic if you think about it...

[IronParrot]

More realistic than jumping from one moving horse to the one in front of it.

[webwizard333]

Well, I finally saw it. It was good if you were just looking for lots and lots of sword play. Fabre (the evil guy in black with an eye patch) was a little too one dismensional for me, and the cardinal was not nearly as devious as he should. Thoguh fun to watch the hero (I forget his name) had a little too many talents-reminded me of miracle boy from JP3. I personally preferred the original movie, but this was ok.

[Sakata]

actually jumping from one running horse to another is a possible move, I tryed it myself a few times, came out with a few stiches, but I made it.