The Three Musketeers (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

lots of swordplay and a new twist to a classic tale.

They mostly, yet loosely, followed the book. Everyone puts their own spin on this story and this version does as well. This is best classified as The Musketeers go SciFi. Tons of CGI and amazing special effects. All the battles are over the top, but in a good way. They are ninja musketeers. The sets and production value - top notch; blockbuster quality. It ended perfectly for another installment but I don't know if there is one. If there wasn't, there should be. With all this said, my favorite incarnation of The Musketeers is the BBC TV series of 2014-2016. It stole my heart. Yes there are lots of swashbuckling sword and gun duels that defy the odds of escape (yet they always do) but somehow not over the top. They are on the precipice of disbelief, but somehow, you believe. The series characters have 30 episodes to fleshed out the characters so you get invested. It doesn't have the production ability of a blockbuster movie but no other movie or series come close to it in my opinion. The series is perfectly cast so that every Musketeer is a unique heartthrob. If you love the story of The Muskateers, check out both.

I've been a fan of the Musketeers since I saw the 70's versions. Disney's rendition was just bleh... The Musketeer was cool. The 70's ones were awesome. This one is closer to those, imho, and threatened to unseat the original as my favourite, but I don't think it can quite cut it... close, though.* SPOILERS BELOW *I really don't understand why people are complaining that it's an action flick... or super-hero-esque... that's what the Musketeers are! I personally don't care whether or not it remains "true" to the original story, whatever, exactly, that might mean.Though the story is a little used because of the previous movies, it feels pretty fresh. But they did actually put some effort into the characters and plot and made them different than in the older movies, but just as good.That they made D'Artagnan younger and gave him an age-related dynamic with the Louis was neat. That they made him that young also fit with his cockiness much better than the older incarnations in the other movies. Louis was hysterical, and I'm glad they made him somewhat of a twit. The dialog was witty, funny, and well written (except for one part below). The sword fighting was extremely fun to watch, which is part of why I like the originals so much.That said, there were a couple of things that weren't so great. I hate that ploy where writers give the main character some witty remark early on in the movie, and have him repeat it at the end... IT'S LAME, and it was lame when it happened in this movie. It wasn't, however, a deal killer. Milla Jovavich was disappointing, though, and she's the reason I had to give the movie only 4 stars. She left the role feeling pretty empty, which is sad. I haven't enjoyed a single movie of hers since The 5th Element. So, bad casting job for the Countess, but the rest were great.

Okay, before I get into the review, I want to preface this by stating that tastes are subjective. There are many people out there who think that the likes of Precious, Good Will Hunting, etc. are great films, while I on the other hand find them to be boring snoozefests. When I see a movie I am looking to be entertained, not see a bunch of depressing drama slop that happens every day in real life. On that note, this revision of The Three Musketeers definitely takes quite a few liberties with Alexandre Dumas' story, and it goes to extremes at times with trying to show the technology to be way ahead of the time period (ie the Will Smith version of the Wild, Wild West). The actors do an okay job with the story and it can be entertaining and fun, but if you are going into this expecting an exceptionally well adapted version of the book then you will be disappointed. For the best story adaptation to film I recommend the mid 70s Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers with Michael York and Co. Where this adaptation really shines is in the fact that is visually and audibly stunning. The 3D on this film is definitely impressive. From the get go, it takes you on a Walk across the map of Europe with Army's represented by figurines as it explains the tensions and politics of the era. The best way I can describe it is that it is probably the closest you would get to walking across a life size Risk Board complete with figurines. The movie always has good depth but there are some visually striking scenes that really stand out (ie the front of a ship sticking straight out into your living room, or a Musketeer pointing his sword straight at the viewer and feeling that the tip of the blade is touching your forehead). It should be noted that I was viewing this with an Epson HC2000 projector on a large blank living room wall and using Samsung 5100SSG 3D Glasses. The whole movie is a plethora of eye candy and will not leave you wanting. In the audio department, I can say that it is equally impressive. If you have a decent 5.1 surround sound with a decent sized sub (ie 10 inch or 12 inch woofer) it will shake the house more often than not and do a great job of emulating canon fire, explosions, etc. I have a Dayton Audio SUB-1200 ($138.50 shipped from Parts Express) and it shook the house so much during the film that I had to turn the sub and main volume down quite a bit as there were quite a few parts that about blew me off the couch.So in conclusion the movie itself is a fun but silly adaptation of the book, but for audio and visual effects, you will be hard pressed to find it's equal for less than $8 shipped and is well worth it even if you strictly use it as a 3d reference quality disc.

love it ,, my whole does too

An excellent cast protrays some rather older musketeers who still manage to save the day after a monumental battle. Fabulous sets and gorgeous costumes well worth seeing more than once!

La versión de Gran Bretaña en 3D de esta película no lleva ni audio ni subtítulos en castellano, inglés solamente. El mezclar opiniones lleva a confusión.

I love the 3D effects on this movieof course at a great price and the fact that it containsa 3D and a blu-ray and dvd it was a great value and of course a fast deliverywill buy more dvds for surethank you

The use of airships aside this is one of the more enjoyable romps of the year. Mainly bought it as I though it a good movie for my 10 year old to watch with me, all the time thinking that it would not come close to the 3 & 4 Musketeer films with Oliver Reed in the the 70's. [Spoiler] When the character Planchet was introduced, all I said to my kids, there is no one who could provide a performance like Roy Kinnear. No sooner had Planchet mutter his first line all of us say "No way, it can't be". The coup of the film was to cast perhaps the one person in the world who could play Planchet. Big fan of Milla so really happy to see her in "Alice" mode as Milady. Must admit the musketeers themselves were flat as characters but the action plus the aforementioned performances more than made up for them.