We wanted to watch a film and D'Artagnan popped up in a recommended list, so I took a quick look at its rating and was incredibly surprised to see that it's sitting at over 90% on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, with a general audience score not far behind. I'm not sure it deserves quite that level of critical acclaim, but it's certainly an extremely fun and surprisingly grounded adaptation. Casting is on point throughout ‒ though our titular hero can be a little overwhelmingly smug at times ‒ and it was fascinating to see Eva Green in a fully French role.

In fact, language is a really interesting point here. The film is French, set in France (obviously), and so most of the dialogue is in French. But the English characters largely speak English, which lends a surprising amount of realism to the story. Similarly, whilst the big fight sequence that introduces our Three Musketeers is absurdly over the top (and utterly reliant on the Cardinal's guards having the accuracy of the Empire's Stormtroopers shooting in the dark), the rest of the film is fairly toned down and simplistic. Sure, it takes us to some mildly ridiculous locations (horse chases along the cliffs of Dover, for instance), but it's well choreographed, just a little gritty, and very enjoyable to watch.

As for the plot, it's surprisingly interesting, all caught up in court intrigue and their own version of a "game of thrones". For the first half, I felt like Armand's arrest and impending execution felt like a bit of a plot hole (why try to dispose of the body of a noblewoman in such a brazen and unnecessary manner, especially as it all but guarantees that the King's guards will end up investigating the affair), but later revelations ‒ mainly setting up plot threads for the sequel ‒ hint at explanations that I feel do enough to justify those actions, so long as said sequel sticks the landing. On the other hand, a lot of the plot effectively relies on people doing slightly stupid things in stupid ways, such as Green's "Milady" handing the necklace back before hurling herself off the cliffs, rather than just taking it with her, along with a healthy dose of immortality for our titular musketeer, who manages to take multiple musket shots at close range and survive without any signs of injury 🤷‍♀️

In the end, though, it feels like most people get what they wanted: war! Sure, there's likely a plot to overthrow the king entirely and replace him with his younger brother, but the core conflict of Protestant vs Catholic appears to have bubbled over even without any of our villain's plans coming to fruition. I have a feeling the sequel will be a little over-the-top and absurd, but I enjoyed this well enough to keep an eye out for it, whenever it hits streaming services. I certainly want to know how they explain Green's survival!