Director: Martin Bourboulon
Year: 2023
Country: France
Rating: 7.5
Again, Bangkok comes through for me
by bringing this film to local theaters. The first part was released here
in 2023 and I was worried they would not bring the sequel. But here it is
showing in a number of theaters. This is a big and expensive production for
France, so it was important to give it a wide international release. There
are 9,000 extras, 650 horses and the use of some of France's stunning ancient
castles and chateau's. It is epic in nature. The strange thing about this
film is that it ends on a cliffhanger leading one to expect yet a Part 3
but as far as I can find out, there is not one planned. Perhaps they are
waiting to see how this financially worked out. I would love for this to
turn into a trilogy because I think these two films - so far - are the best
Three Musketeers put on film. Or more. Dumas's story of the Musketeers goes
on forever - thousands of pages - Dumas was a great pulp writer though because
it was written nearly 200-years ago no one calls it pulp. It is instead a
classic. And this film is very pulp in nature, fast moving action full of
heroics and villainy with barely a pause to catch one's breath.
At the end of Part I, the Musketeers had
foiled a plot to assassinate Louis XIII (Louis Garrell), have saved the Queen
(Vicky Krieps) from a scandal and D'Artagnan (François Civil) has
officially become a Musketeer. At the very end his love Constance (Lyna Khoudri)
is kidnapped by Cardinal Richelieu and D'Artagnan has been captured and put
into a box. Most of the many previous Musketeer films end at the point where
they save the Queen leaving thousands of pages from Dumas unspoken for. It
is a nice way to end a rousing adventure tale. Part II takes it further of
course and there are not the familiar highlights that we are used to. It
is much more about intrigue, suspense and war. And it focuses much more as
the title implies on Milady (Eva Green). She is a rattlesnake. A wonderfully
modern day villainess who seems impossible to kill. She is seductive, deceitful,
beautiful. hypnotic and totally immoral. She has a grudge against the whole
world and as a servant for Richelieu, she gets the opportunity to apply it.
She does have a bit of a soft spot for D'Artagnan though she also tries to
kill him a few times as well as seduce him. As the film reveals, she was
once the wife of Athos (Vincent Cassell) who thought he had her hanged years
previously for transgressions. But she is as unkillable as any woman in film.
As the film begins, it is still unknown
who was behind the conspiracy to kill the King. There is also a growing division
between the Catholic rulers and the Protestant part of the population. Some
among the Catholics want to kill all the Protestants and feel Louis is too
lenient on them. They too could be behind the plot to murder him - and then
install his brother on the throne. There are a few different tracks that
the film takes - D'Artagnan after escaping from capture is intent on finding
Constance, Athos has to deal with his ex-wife who tries to stab him through
the neck, they try to uncover the plotters, Milady is sent to England to
kill the Duke of Buckingham and the King's followers lay siege to the fortress
of La Rochelle where the Protestant forces are making a last stand. It jumps
back and forth between all these strands at a mile a minute. It is good old
fashioned adventure with lots of derring-do, swordfights, horse riding in
a world gone crazy in which the only people you can trust are your friends.
One for all and all for one.
