The Three Musketeers is a 2011 3D adventure film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson which is a rewriting of the novel of the same title by Alexandre Dumas.^[5] The film was released on 1 September 2011 for Germany, 12 October 2011 for the United Kingdom and France and 21 October 2011 for the United States, Canada and Australia. Critics gave it a negative reaction but the film achieved a positive box office result.

Plot

In Venice at the beginning of the 17th Century, the Three Musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and Aramis (Luke Evans), with the help of Athos' longtime lover, Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich), steal airship blueprints made by Leonardo da Vinci. However, they are betrayed by Milady, who gives the blueprints to the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom). Upon returning to France, the Musketeers are forced to disband by Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) for their failure, and they end up on the streets of Paris.

One year later, a young man named D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) leaves the village of Gascony for Paris in hopes of becoming a Musketeer as his father was, only to learn that they no longer exist. At a rural bar, D'Artagnan's horse is offended by Captain Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen), the leader of Richelieu's guard, and d'Artagnan challenges him to a duel, but Rochefort shoots him while he is distracted, but he is saved by Milady de Winter. Arriving in Paris, D'Artagnan by coincidence separately encounters Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and accidentally offends all three and schedules duels with each at 12:00,1:00 and 2:00PM.

Athos brings Porthos and Aramis to the duel as his seconds, and D'Artagnan realizes they are the Musketeers he is seeking. He is prepared to continue with the duel, but Richelieu's guards break it up. The three are inspired by d'Artagnan and fight together and defeat the soldiers, but later are summoned before the young King Louis XIII (Freddie Fox) and his wife, Queen Anne (Juno Temple). Richelieu asks the king to execute the four, but the queen is impressed by their bravery and the king congratulates them and invites them to an event, which to Athos' anger, turns out to be Buckingham's arrival (who comes in an airship built following da Vinci's blueprints)

Later, Richelieu orders Milady, who is actually working for him, to plant false love letters among Queen Anne's possessions, steal Queen Anne's diamond necklace, and take it to the Tower of London to frame Queen Anne as having an affair with the Duke of Buckingham. The affair would force King Louis to execute Queen Anne and declare war on Britain. At this point, the people would demand a more experienced leader: Richelieu himself. But Milady demands that Richelieu declare in writing that she is working on behalf of France, to protect herself in case of palace intrigue.

The false letters (saying that the necklace has been given to Buckingham) are found by a maid and are given to King Louis and he is advised by Richelieu to set up a ball at which Queen Anne would be forced to wear the necklace. If she doesn't, then her affair is real, and there will be war against Britain.

Queen Anne's lady-in-waiting Constance Bonacieux (Gabriella Wilde) discovers Richelieu's plan and asks the Musketeers to stop him. As they attempt to leave, they are attacked but escape.

At Calais, they find guards and Constance pretends to be d'Artagnan and distracts the guards while the musketeers get on a boat.

In London, Milady warns Buckingham that the Musketeers have arrived to take revenge on him. Milady instructs Buckingham of all their tendencies in battle, but Athos predicts this and the Musketeers resolve to do just the opposite.

Milady later escapes in a coach, taking the necklace with her. Buckingham captures D'Artagnan, but he was a decoy to let the Musketeers steal the airship. The Musketeers rescue D'Artagnan, demolishing the top floor of the Tower with the airship.

Meanwhile, the coach stops in a clearing in the woods and the driver is revealed to be Planchet, the Musketeer's servant and occasional helper. The musketeers pick up the coach and capture Milady. She gives up Richelieu's authorization to try to save her life. When Athos intends to kill her anyway, in a suicide attempt, she jumps out of the airship into the English Channel.

The Musketeers return to Paris with the necklace, but in the air near the city, they are attacked by Rochefort in another airship, as Milady had given Richelieu copies of Da Vinci's blueprints. Rochefort offers Constance, with whom D'Artagnan is infatuated, for the necklace, but he knocks out and captures d'Artagnan. The two ships engage in combat and the Musketeers lure Rochefort into a storm cloud and burst the balloon and make Rochefort's ship crash into the Notre Dame Cathedral. On the roof, D'Artagnan duels and stabs Rochefort, who falls to his death. Meanwhile, Constance returns the necklace to Queen Anne.

The Musketeers arrive at the ball in Buckingham's now burning airship. However, for the sake of King Louis and his people, they claim that Richelieu had it built for the king, but an attempt was made by Rochefort to sabotage it, also showing King Louis the authorization Richelieu had given Milady, pretending that it was given to them. Richelieu, impressed by how the Musketeers handled the situation, offers them places in his army, but they refuse.

At sea, Milady (who survived her fall) is rescued by Buckingham, who reveals that he knows that she was working for Richelieu and says that he is going to fight against France. The camera backs away and shows Buckingham advancing towards France's shore with a massive fleet of battleships and airships.

Cast

• Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan
• Matthew Macfadyen as Athos
• Ray Stevenson as Porthos
• Luke Evans as Aramis
• Milla Jovovich as Milady de Winter
• Christoph Waltz as Cardinal Richelieu
• Orlando Bloom as Duke of Buckingham
• Mads Mikkelsen as Captain Rochefort
• Gabriella Wilde as Constance Bonacieux
• James Corden as Planchet
• Freddie Fox as King Louis XIII
• Juno Temple as Queen Anne
• Til Schweiger as Cagliostro
• Carsten Norgaard as Jussac

Production

Location filming was done in Bavaria with indoor shooting at Studio Babelsberg.^[6] Filming locations include:^[7]

• Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
• Burghausen, Bavaria, Germany
• Castle Herrenchiemsee, Herrenchiemsee, Bavaria, Germany
• Festung Marienberg, Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
• Munich, Bavaria, Germany
• Studio Babelsberg, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
• Würzburg Residence, Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany

It was filmed with an Arri Alexa camera.^[8] A sizable proportion of the funding for the film came from German sources: $4 million from Bavaria's bank fund (BBF) and film and TV fund (FFF), about $1.3 million from the federal German Film Board, about $10 million in tax rebate cash from the German film fund, the DFF and $1 million (€800,000) in subsidy financing from the Berlin-Brandenburg Medienboard.^[9] The production budget was between $75 million^[4] and $90 million.^[10]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Paul Haslinger.

British band Take That wrote and recorded the official single entitled "When We Were Young"; it was released on 22 August 2011.^[11]

Release

The film has earned $20,349,913 in North America, as of 22 December 2011, and an estimated $111,900,000 in other countries, as of 4 December 2011, for a worldwide total of $132,249,913.^[12]

First released in Germany on 1 September 2011, it topped the box office with $3.38 million and has since grossed $16.20 million. It was released in Austria the same day, topping the box office with $503,239 on its opening weekend.^[13] It topped the box office during its opening weekends in Italy ($2,023,021), Brazil ($2,343,786) and Turkey ($219,645). In the UK, Ireland and Malta, it debuted with $2,312,509, when it was released on 12–14 October 2011.^[14] Its highest-grossing opening to date overseas was achieved in Japan ($3.86 million).^[15][16][17]

It was released on 21 October 2011 in North America opening at fourth place with $8,674,452.^[18] 3D accounted for 55% of its total opening and the movie received a B CinemaScore.^[19]

Milla Jovovich criticized Summit Entertainment for not "promoting [the film] properly" as a "family film" in the United States. Deadline.com reported that Summit responded with "She doesn’t know what she’s talking about and we don’t know where she’s coming from." and that "Wouldn’t you think she would call us first about this? It’s frustrating. It’s not the right way to behave. If she has a problem then come to the studio and talk about it".^[20]

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 25% of 86 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4 out of 10. The website's consensus is "It plays admirably fast and loose with Alexandre Dumas' classic tale, but in every other respect, The Three Musketeers offers nothing to recommend—or to set it apart from the many other film adaptations".^[21] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 35 based on 15 reviews.^[22] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[10]

Char Dallin from "X media online" said, "Despite an awful script, an array of baffling accents and some performances that would not look out of place at the pantomime, I found it very entertaining and enjoyable – hence my bewilderment! I saw it in 3D, which was mostly used to good effect especially during the scenes with the airships."^[23] Francesca Rudkin from The New Zealand Herald gave the film three stars out of five.^[24]

Quentin Tarantino cited the film as one of his favorite releases of 2011.^[25]

Home Media

The Three Musketeers was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 13 March 2012.

Sequel

In an interview, Orlando Bloom mentioned that The Three Musketeers had a potential for a sequel, though this hasn't been confirmed by the studio.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Official website
• The Three Musketeers at the Internet Movie Database
• The Three Musketeers at AllRovi