Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Three Musketeers: Milady Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 17, 2024

Martin Bourboulon's "The Three Musketeers: Milady" (2023) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment in Video (EIV). There are no special features on the release. In French, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

A short prologue provides a good summary of the key events from the first film. Immediately after that, Martin Bourboulon resumes his retelling of the famous story about the musketeers.

D'Artagnan (Francois Civil) is on his way to uncover and save Constance (Lyna Khoudri) but is repeatedly distracted by Milady de Winter (Eva Green), who is on her way to Buckingham to commit a murder that will plunge France into bloody chaos. Meanwhile, Cardinal de Richelieu (Eric Ruf), who secretly directs Milady de Winter’s, begins targeting Aramis (Romain Duris), Athos (Vincent Cassel), and Porthos (Pio Marmai). As tensions between Paris and Buckingham reach a boiling point and King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel) orders his troops to prepare for a decisive clash at La Rochelle, D'Artagnan accidentally discovers that Milady de Winter and Athos have a history together, and shortly after learns from Queen Anne d'Autriche (Vicky Krieps) that Constance (Lyna Khoudri) is safe with her secret lover.

Like the first film, this film provides ample evidence that Bourboulon is a talented director who can choose incredible locations and deliver stunning visuals. Both films make it crystal clear that he is a very confident director, too.

Sadly, Bourboulon’s retelling of the famous story about the musketeers is full of awkward contemporary improvisations and embellishments, suggesting that he was never concerned about accuracy. Unsurprisingly, even though various events from Alexandre Dumas' classic novel are properly reconstructed in his film, many feature ‘improved’ or completely new characters that either expand or alter the famous story in hugely disappointing ways.

This is one of the main reasons this film often becomes muddled. In the original story, Dumas expertly controls all characters, and they make rational decisions that become intertwined in a big but coherent game of intrigues. The blending of politics and romance in this game is superb as well. Bourboulon alters personalities, introduces new characters, and expands the romance and drama in ways that impede the story's natural flow and often erode the integrity of the game. To minimize or hide the damage, Bourboulon floods the film with grand visuals, many of which have the proper period look too, but the inconsistencies are so frequent and obvious that the trick never works.

The leads are good. However, one can probably successfully argue that Cassel may not have been the best choice to play Athos. In the original story, he is the most complex character and struggles mightily with the consequences of his failed romantic relationship. In the film, Bourboulon only manages to show Cassel looking miserable and then brittle, leaving the impression that he is simply struggling to overcome a shocking discovery. Also, Ruf and Bourboulon could have done a lot more to convince that Cardinal de Richelieu is the most dangerous man in France. As played, Cardinal de Richelieu leaves the impression that he is just a high-ranking figure with direct access to King Louis XIII plotting a secret event that is doomed to fail.

Bourboulon shot the first and second film in five months, without interruption, with Canadian-born cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc. Earlier this year, Bolduc earned Cesar (the French Oscars) and CSC (Canadian Society of Cinematographers) nominations for his work on the two films.

The Three Musketeers: Milady Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Three Musketeers: Milady arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment in Video (EIV).

The entire film looked gorgeous on my system. Many of the wider panoramic vistas, in particular, had a borderline 4K quality. Yes, it is possible that the entire film looks even better in native 4K, but I cannot see how anyone can be underwhelmed or disappointed with the quality of the 1980p presentation. Delineation, clarity, and depth are fantastic, while fluidity is as good as I think it can be. Color reproduction is lovely as well. There is a lot of darker content with various excellent primaries and supporting nuances, and all of this material boasts terrific shadow detail, too. Image stability is outstanding. I did not see any encoding anomalies to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Three Musketeers: Milady Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. English subtitles are provided but they are forced. This means that they cannot be turned off via the main menu.

The lossless track handles the film's rich soundtrack incredibly well. There is a lot of large-scale action, rich music, and surround effects that sound great. Perhaps this should not be surprising, but I was quite impressed by the dynamic range of the lossless track and the easiness with which it handled everything. The English translation is excellent. On this release, the English subtitles are slightly bigger and easier to read as well.

The Three Musketeers: Milady Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no bonus features on this release.

The Three Musketeers: Milady Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like the first film, this film produces some pretty visuals, but it does not treat the original material from Alexandre Dumas' classic novel with the proper respect. It changes and adds new characters, it fabricates events, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it mishandles the complex game of intrigues that is at the center of the great story about the musketeers. It very much feels like a recent Hollywood project, which is definitely not a good thing. However, the entire film looks fantastic on Blu-ray.