Review of Captain Alatriste: The Spanish Musketeer (2006) by Victor L — 03 Dec 2010

The book by Perez-Reverte is an exciting one, in the vein of The Three Musketeers but set in Spain, rich in intrigues, adventure, thrills and romance. Unfortunately, I can't say the same on the film adaptation.

There's a lot of money invested in costumes and art direction, but they worked with a preposterous script that makes the rest of the artistic values collapse. The movie lacks depth in every single thing they show onscreen, the direction is awful, Diaz Yañez overdevelops unnecessary scenes of sex and death and underdevelops trascendental moments in the book.

The whole movie seems like a bunch of short scenes with no apparent relationship between them, the whole product is confusing and it was easy for me to get lost. Viggo Mortensen does a good job but he can't save this bad production from bombing.