Les Trois Mousquetaires: Milady

Part 2 of the current film adaptation is by no means a bad film, thanks to the actors, budget and, of course, the literary source material. Nevertheless, it falls well short of its predecessor, not least because of the high expectations following the first film. What's missing this time? A certain freshness, the haunting presence of the protagonists, their actually indispensable interaction, memorable climaxes. Content now rules here, almost too much for the running time, instead of fun.

Eva Green gives an outstanding performance in her parade role as the femme fatale, this time making the important and correct decision that less is often more.

"The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas comes to life in the cinematic adaptation, which, while deviating in some details from the book, manages to preserve the original work's essence. The story follows D'Artagnan and his loyal friends, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, in a captivating 17th-century setting. Political intrigues, thrilling duels, and secret romances intertwine as they battle against the cunning Cardinal Richelieu and the enigmatic Milady de Winter. Although poetic licenses result in more battles than in the book, the film successfully captures the spirit of adventure, action, and romance that has made this classic swashbuckling tale endure.

Once again a tremendous spectacle, served with a bunch of very fine actors ("la fine fleur" of French actors) in all their glory, who make most of the scenes of the movie a tasty delight to savour... In particular the highly charismatic Eva Green and François Civil, who both have this magnetic presence that makes you wanna follow each of their adventures (each of the moments they share are captivating)...

The staging and overall design of the movie is as majestically pleasing as in the First Part (both movies were shot at the same time) with very gorgeous framings and lightings (wonderfully mastered)... The action and stunts do the job (in spite of this recurring shaky camera), with a few cool bits (hats off to the final confrontation).

Of course the stakes -even if already pretty high at some point in the First Part- are even higher here... Numerous events in this Second Part mirror events recounted in the First Part ; the situation is pretty tight for the main players, and the whole -mysterious- intrigue gets thicker and tastier as it evolves... With Milady playing a pivotal role in everything ; even when she is not here, her shadow never is very far... But things, during the entire movie, don't really go as expected, twists after twists...

In the end, this two-parter story definitely is a pretty gem in the long history of French Cinema, because it shows the nice will to produce a pleasing cinematic piece, à la française ; but in a fashion that uses some of the welcome contempory/modern tools.

A fine and tasty adventure to watch, and potentially a Third Part to come (?)

I love Eva she is amazing and sensual in this movie that i liked more than the. First one because she appears than the previous one and that's actually make the movie better only because of her and her beautiful voice and face, love that girl to be honest, overall very forgettable and kinda of a mess, I suppose there is going to be a third part my guys, and that's fine I guess let's wait two years for that and i hope Eva is in that movie too, she is the love of my life and i desire her, she is just fantastic actress and she knows it, she is the boss. Love her very much and i would do anything for her.

Plenty of positives including an exceptional cast (with the exception of Constance), the cinematography was mostly good (a few scenes a little too dark) , most of the scenes were well paced and costumes looked authentic.

However, the story seemed a lot more disjointed than the first movie and it didnt seem like there was enough time for character building (maybe we get spoilt with the amount of time series have but with 3 movies it felt like more could have been achieved). The worst part however, was the sudden revelation of super female fighters able to compete if not better the supposed best male sword fighters in the country....

The story was frustrating enough that i feel the need to re read the book after 20 plus years as im sure i remember it being a lot more coherent than this movie !