"The 4 Musketeers" is a terrible movie. Three painful hours of utter crap. Milady is a ninja and made a pact with the Devil, who gave her magic powers. These powers consist of Sci-Fi level special effects, and zooming in on her eyes a lot. Oh, and D'Artagnan has a magic white hawk, who follows him around and saves the day. I think that's what gave him the power to row across the English channel within the space of only a few hours. And have I mentioned the really bad dubbing from the original French? (There was no option to watch it in French with English subtitles). Anyway, what I really wanted to say was, Stay away from this movie... it's three hours of your life that you'll never get back.

Much better than Hollywood versions. Excellent timing. No time wasted on accessory adventures or hiper-detailed beginnings and clumsy and too keep with budget. This film spends viewer time on what's important. Sign of the times, perhaps, lots of «kung fu» and «buffy the vampire slayer».. Some people like to re-invent the wheel.. but the book is all adventure anyway and we can't blame Dumas for not having thought of everything, can we?! The taste of the 21st century spectator is as much reflected in this film as that of the 19th reader is satisfied in the book. To the dread of the purist, this movie may in fact remain true to the original; certainly not in «form», but in «logic». All in all a good movie and among best of the several (though not all) of «Les Trois Mousquetaires» that I have seen so far. The «garde robe» is exquisite and it's historic accuracy (or at least the look of it) marks the different to Hollywood amateurism in these more serious aspects of show-business. If they colored the story, these people at least new what they were filming about. Last, but not least, the cast: Awesome babes! I mean.. I'd buy that soul if I could afford it. :-)Rui Duarte

When reading the novels by Alexandre Dumas as a twelve year old kid, the impression I got from The Three Musketeers was completely different from what I had seen on the movies. Where the books had been quite dark, the white screen presented comedies and "jolly old chap" sentiments, the only exception being the Richard Lester excellent versions of 1973/74 (although made with love and humor, it was not even close to being reduced to a "d'Artagnan and the Merry Olde Musketeers" level...). With this new French movies (two parts, just like Lester's) I can really recognize the Dumas spirit. I can not say that this version is superior in terms of corresponding better with the books from a word-by-word perspective, but the over all impression certainly is. Some people might disapprove with Emanuelle Béart's interpretation of Milady, but I think this is where the Dumas' feeling really shines through... Béart makes Milady not only evil, but diabolic.

This French version of the famous story should have been much more faithful to Alexandre Dumas' text... I'm hugely disappointed. Milady Winter could not be just a bad girl, that was too easy. She had to be Demon-possessed!!! I'm not kidding, she does sign a covenant with the Devil in this film!!! It happens in the woods just after Athos try to kill her... And the young boy D'Artagnan witnesses the whole mess... Years later D'Artagnan would be the only one who could beat her... Why the writers have invented it? Was it really necessary? Certainly the writers, or the producers, decided the original story was not good enough to attract audience. There are also some Matrix-like fighting scenes. This had already been done much better in Peter Hyams' The Musketeer (2001) which was not a serious film.The rest of the film is not that bad. Good cast, good production values. But why they had to include the Devil in this???