I caught most of the 2011 Three Musketeers on TV the other evening.  OMG!  Wow.  Why did someone think this was a good idea?  I kept watching for the same reason humans watch train wrecks.  I’m not one of those people who demands strict fidelity to a book.  I know changes have to be made, and I’m happy to make them, but this warping of technological advancement in order to have flying ships, and bigger explosions made me crazy.  The men playing Athos, Prothos and Aramis were quite good.  Athos especially had a dark velvet voice, and he brooded nicely.  Logan Lerman was cute as D’Artagnan.  The director and screenwriter played Queen Anne and Louis XIII as spoiled children which was actually fairly interesting.    (An aside — I’ve felt that’s the only way you can sit through Mozart’s opera Cosi fan Tutti).  Planchet is always a great role for a comedic actor, and James Corden did a nice job.  They also shot the sword fights with a medium lens so you could actually see the sword play.  I was glad for that.  The extreme close up doesn’t add to my sense of being in the moment.  It’s just confusing, and good swordplay is beautiful to watch.

It was the whole airships, winching up carriages into said airship, crashing airships on Notre Dame, etc., just felt stupid and cynical.  I have this sense that audiences are burning out on the flamboyant CGI battles and explosions inside explosions.  Eventually you can’t make the action any bigger, and if that’s all that’s supporting your film it will eventually collapse under it’s own weight.  I saw this with THE HOBBIT.  The core story, one man’s journey to find discover who he is and what he’s capable of accomplishing is a moving, meaningful story.  I didn’t need all the endless orc and goblin CGI battles.

So too with the Musketeers.  The story of a young man finding his place in the world, and of male comaraderie is wonderful, and swashbuckling sword fights should be enough.