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Ray Stevenson was a terrific supporting actor with an ability to capture medieval fanfare, quality direct-to-VOD nail biters, and the world of comic book movies, and even managed to turn in a decent performance in the disastrous Divergent franchise. While his chances at playing leading characters were few and far between, Stevenson never failed to compliment his co-stars with standout supporting turns that didn’t run the risk of dominating their screen time. There’s a skill to being a great standout within an ensemble, as Stevenson rarely dominated the screen time, but never failed to at least have a unique spin on his characters. He’s appeared in great movies, complete disappointments, and even a few major comic book adaptations, and hasn’t treated them any differently. However, Stevenson somehow managed to retain his chivalry to take part in Paul W.S. Anderson’s botched 2011 reboot of The Three Musketeers, a film so rife with oddities that it merits fevered introspection on behalf of Summit Entertainment.
The Three Musketeers is based on one of the many characters whose rights have expired, and thus can be adapted by any filmmaker or studio willing to invest in a new interpretation; characters like Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Zorro, Hercules, and Tarzan are all available to studios as massive as Lionsgate as well as any bored film student putting together their first short project. Anderson is certainly not an acclaimed auteur, but he’s been a broadly successful one, as his CGI monstrosities of Monster Hunter, Pompeii, and the Resident Evil franchise have been unquestionably the work of a singular artist. Does that mean that he’s suited for a period adaptation of a timeless piece of literature? Leave it to someone as professional as Stevenson to treat Anderson’s The Three Musketeers as anything but a joke.
Paul W.S. Anderson’s Twist On a Timeless Story
Anderson’s fevered revision of The Three Musketeers imagines the timeless characters of Athos (Succession’s #1 boy, Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (the late great Stevenson), and Aramis (an underutilized Luke Evans) as a quasi-heist team working in league with Anderson’s frequent star (and real-life bride) Milla Jovovich as a hypersexualized version of Milady de Winter. After Milady inevitably betrays them in a ridiculous opening sequence, the Musketeers learn of an ongoing plot by the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom in somehow the film’s wackiest performance) to use flying ships to invade France.
As is custom to any adaptation of The Three Musketeers, the Musketeers are embarrassed in front of the young, illustrious King Louis (Freddie Fox), who is under the influence of the ruthless Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz in what feels like a parody of his Inglorious Basterds character). As a result, they must join forces with the young heartthrob D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman), who gets into his own romantic trieste when he falls for Constance (Gabriella Wilde), the assistant to the young Queen Anne (Juno Temple). If you need even more great actors embarrassing themselves, there’s also Mads Mikkelsen as the villainous Captain Rodochefort and a pointless supporting performance by James Corden as the Musketeers’ servant Planchet. What’s odd is that this is all pretty standard Musketeers stuff; it just gets crazier when Anderson starts adding in flying ships, multiple double crosses, and a strip-tease from Jovovich as she steals the queen’s priceless diamond necklace.
Ray Stevenson Treated the Source Material With the Respect It Deserves
Any inherent cleverness in 2011’s The Three Musketeers comes from the source material, and that’s the element of the film that Stevenson seems to treat with respect. While Anderson’s version of the Musketeers seems like a parody of these chivalrous warriors, Stevenson genuinely seems to be taking the material seriously whenever he’s reciting text that’s lifted directly from Dumas. The Musketeers are the knights of France, and their code of honor only comes across as legitimate when Stevenson is on-screen. All due respect to Evans and Macfayden, who do their best under the circumstances, but Stevenson is the only one who comes across as anything other than a caricature of a timeless hero. Stevenson doesn’t even go for the easy joke of making Porthos’ supersized strength a joke. As evidenced by his impressive physicality in the titular role of Punisher: War Zone, Stevenson treated the stunt choreography and fight scenes seriously. His knowledge of actual choreography is apparent within the cluttered CGI fight scenes within the film, which often relies too heavily on green screen effects that are plucked straight out of Anderson’s video game adaptations.
At the same time, Stevenson also knows that this is very much “The Three Musketeers from the guy that made Monster Hunter.” Anderson doesn’t have an inch of subtlety in him, and Stevenson seems to be having fun jerking around Lerman’s dull version of D’Artagnan between set pieces. He acknowledges that the film is a joke, and that at the end of the day they’re all just chess pieces in the middle of a flying airship fight. Stevenson is actually more effective because he’s playing it straight. Some of the other performances are so awkwardly goofy that they forsake any unintentional humor the film could have earned. Stevenson has appeared in enough junk that he knew “phoning it in” for a cheap paycheck role wasn’t going to do him any favors.
The Three Musketeers isn’t really a film that’s worth remembering at all. Inevitably, there will be another version of the same story. In fact, BBC has a genuinely great television adaptation that tells a more nuanced version of the text over four seasons, and a new adaptation from French filmmaker Martin Bourboulon is set to once again revisit the “all for one, one for all” calling card. It’s amazing that Stevenson took what could have been a throwaway role in a box office disaster and actually embedded it with some personality; he will always be remembered as a badass, yet classy actor who could elevate even the worst of material. Looking back at Stevenson’s filmography is a reminder of what he brought to projects that certainly didn’t serve the classiness that he brought to them.
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