The Three Musketeers (2011 film)

The Three Musketeers

Promotional film poster
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Produced by Paul W. S. Anderson
Jeremy Bolt
Robert Kulzer
Written by Andrew Davies
Alex Litvak
Based on The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas père
Starring Matthew Macfadyen
Logan Lerman
Ray Stevenson
Gabriella Wilde
Luke Evans
Milla Jovovich
Orlando Bloom
Christoph Waltz
Music by Paul Haslinger
Cinematography Glen MacPherson
Edited by Alexander Berner
Production
company
Impact Pictures
NEF Productions
New Legacy Film
Distributed by Constantin Film (Germany)
Entertainment One (UK)
Summit Entertainment (US)
Release dates
  • 1 September 2011 (2011-09-01) (Germany)
  • 12 October 2011 (2011-10-12) (France/United Kingdom)
  • 21 October 2011 (2011-10-21) (United States)
Running time
 110 minutes[1]
Country Germany
France
United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $75 million[2]
Box office $132.2 million[2]

The Three Musketeers is a 2011 3D romantic action adventure film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, based on the novel of the same title by Alexandre Dumas with clock-punk elements.[3] The film stars Matthew Macfadyen, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz.

The Three Musketeers was released on 1 September 2011 in Germany, 12 October 2011 in the United Kingdom and France and 21 October 2011 in the United States, Canada and Australia. Upon its release, the film was a huge commercial failure grossing $132 million against production budget of only $75 million as well as received general poor critical reaction from critics who praised the action sequences, the visual style, the acting and the humor but criticized the film's writing ,direction and storyline were lame and silly.

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.

A year later, a young man named d'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) leaves his village in 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 accuses Captain Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen), the leader of Richelieu's guard, of offending his horse, and challenges him to a duel. 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 accidentally offending all three, then scheduling duels with each at 12:00, 1:00 and 2:00 pm respectively.

Athos brings Porthos and Aramis to the duel as his seconds. d'Artagnan realises 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 England. 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, who 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 England. Queen Anne's lady-in-waiting Constance Bonacieux (Gabriella Wilde) discovers Richelieu's plan and asks the Musketeers to stop him. The Musketeers plan to sail to England and retrieve the jewels before the ball. However, at the dock, Rochefort sets up a blockade to prevent anybody from boarding the ships. Constance takes d'Artagnan's hat, cape and horse to divert the guards standing in front of the boat to allow the Musketeers to board undetected.

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. 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 in the process. Athos was sure that Milady would have fled, taking the necklace with her as insurance, so he planted the Musketeers' manservant Planchet (James Corden) as her carriage driver to take her to an isolated spot where the airship could pick up the carriage. As retribution for betraying them, Athos prepares to execute Milady. However, Milady leaps off the airship before Athos can shoot, apparently dying on her own terms.

The Musketeers fly back to Paris with the necklace, but they are attacked by Rochefort in another airship, as Milady had given Richelieu copies of da Vinci's blueprints. Rochefort then reveals that he has Constance, and threatens to kill her if they don't hand over the necklace. d'Artagnan agrees to exchange the necklace for Constance, with whom he is infatuated, but Rochefort knocks him out and captures him as soon as the necklace is in his possession. Rochefort then proceeds to attack the Musketeers' ship, at first gaining the upper hand due to the superior size and weaponry of his airship. However, the Musketeers lure Rochefort into a storm cloud, burst the balloon of the airship and make the ship crash onto 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 damaged 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. The King then congratulates the Musketeers, and thanks d'Artagnan, who he sees as his best friend, for everything. Richelieu, impressed by how the Musketeers handled the situation, offers them places in his employ, but they refuse. Richelieu threatens them by saying they will one day regret their choices, but they laugh him off. As Louis and Anne dance, d'Artagnan and Constance kiss. The Musketeers then leave, promising that they will protect France as Musketeers when they are needed.

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

Behind the scenes image of the filming of the movie. From left to right: Christoph Waltz, Freddie Fox, Juno Temple, Gabriella Wilde

Production

Filming locations

Location filming was done in Bavaria with indoor shooting at Studio Babelsberg.[4] Filming locations include:[5]

Filming

It was filmed with an Arri Alexa camera.[6] A sizeable 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 German Federal 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.[7] The production budget was between $75 million[2] and $90 million.[8]

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 in the UK.[9]

Release

Box office

As of 22 December 2011 the film had grossed $132,249,913.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] Its highest-grossing opening to date overseas was achieved in Japan ($3.86 million).[13][14][15]

It was released on 21 October 2011 in North America opening at fourth place with $8,674,452.[16] 3D accounted for 55% of its total opening and the movie received a B CinemaScore.[17] Milla Jovovich criticised 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".[18]

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews from critics, with the major criticism on the lack of originality, acting performances and outdated visual style. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 24% of 90 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.1 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".[19] 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.[20] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Home media

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

References

  1. ↑ "The Three Musketeers (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Three Musketeers (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  3. ↑ Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 125. ISBN 978-1908215017.
  4. ↑ "THE THREE MUSKETEERS starts shooting in 3D at Studio Babelsberg". Studio Babelsberg. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  5. ↑ "IMDB: Filming locations for The Three Musketeers". Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  6. ↑ Lesnick, Silas (13 October 2011). "Exclusive: Producer Jeremy Bolt on The Three Musketeers". ComingSoon.net. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (14 October 2010). "'Three Musketeers' gets $1 mil from Berlin". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  8. 1 2 McClintock, Pamela (21 October 2011). "Box Office Report: 'Paranormal Activity 3' on Course for Jaw-Dropping $45 Mil to $50 Mil Weekend". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  9. ↑ When We Were Young – Take That Official Site
  10. ↑ "The Three Musketeers (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  11. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (5 September 2011). "'Three Musketeers' Tops German Charts in World Premiere". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  12. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (21 October 2011). "'The Three Musketeers' Battles Past $50 Million Mark Worldwide". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  13. ↑ "The Three Musketeers (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  14. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (21 October 2011). "'The Three Musketeers' Cross The $100 Million Mark Worldwide". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  15. ↑ "THE THREE MUSKETEERS (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  16. ↑ "The Three Musketeers (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  17. ↑ Subers, Ray (21 October 2011). "Weekend Report: 'Paranormal' Possesses Fall Record". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  18. ↑ "Milla Jovovich Takes To Twitter To Rip Summit Over 'Three Musketeers' Marketing". Deadline.com. PMC. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  19. ↑ "The Three Musketeers (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  20. ↑ "The Three Musketeers Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Three Musketeers (2011 film).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.