In yet another version of the legendary "Three Musketeers" Tale by Alexander Dumas, this tale puts the emphasis on D'artagnan (played by Justin Chambers), the musketeer hopeful whose father and mother were massacred in front of his eyes by the psychotic Febre (played by Tim Roth) when he was a boy is taken in by a family friend and taught to be a musketeer. Years later, he returns for Febre and hopes to be a musketeer who unfortunately barely exist.
    I really wanted to see this film when it came out. I love swashbuckling movies as much as the next guy. I thought the emphasis put on D'artagnans journey from boy to man to hunting down his parents' killer was actually quite refreshing. The tale has a sense of epic ness to it. I also thought the fight scenes were excellent and breathtaking. At times, the men moved so fast when fighting that it was difficult to catch up most times... which is a good thing.

There are many problems with this. Oh, so many. And as much as I despise it, I really wanted to like this movie. First off, the story plays like a bad Saturday morning serial and makes it very comical. There is no emphasis on the characters whatsoever which make them look like 2-d cardboard cutouts of 17th century swashbucklers. The lead character D'artagnan played by Justin Chambers is so dull and one dimensional that it makes it hard to like him at all. The movie is painful to watch. It seems like the movies producers tried to squeeze a potential epic in a one and a half hour film. The entire story could have been put into a two and a half hour length, but everything speeds through so much that it leaves your head spinning. We never learn anything about D'artagnan, there is no emphasis on him and his father's relationship, or his relationship with his parents by that matter.
    Instantly within three minutes of the film, The evil Febre played by Tim Roth, who is grossly underused, appears and kills the father within seconds. And instantly D'artagnan is taken in by a man who promises to turn him into a man, though we never get to see it, because we automatically fast forward 14 years where D'artagnan is a man already. After two or three derogatory and redundant fight scenes, we meet the musketeers, who, once again we never learn anything about. There's the love interest play wretchedly by Mena Suvari, the boring love scenes and dribble they spout to one another. There's the dull scenery and mellow- dramatic love scenes. To top everything off, the inevitable and anticipated showdown between D'artagnan and Febre, the murderer of his parents, in the end is so anti- climactic and disappointing that it will leave you feeling robbed. The big fight scene lasts a total of five minutes, as in the Disney version, which was more watchable, lasted a good half hour.

Dazzling fight scenes and stunts does not a masterpiece make. Save your dough for this one, folks.