Review of The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) by Allison C — 24 Sep 2010

It is really too bad that they paid so much money to hire decent actors, but apparently never read the book. It's hardly the same story. But what's new with the works of Alexandre Dumas? The man was a genius, but apparently what he actually wrote is too confusing for your average director, or the direcotrs who choose to make movies on his books decide that the actual story there is too complicated for the average viewer. Alright, I understand. It's awfully difficult to make a movie that can accurately portray a story of Dumas, seeing as they are rather long to condense into a movie. But rarely are they ever remotely the same movie.

I mean, this isn't nearly as bad as Disney's version of the Three Musketeers. In that one Disney had the Cardinal try to have the king killed and himself become king. Anybody who has actually read the book will laugh at that. Though Fox's job at the Man in the Iron mask is not QUITE that bad, it's truly sad in its own right. (And whoever thought that John Malkovich would make a good Athos has got to be out of their mind, though Gabriel Byrne is perfect for d'Artagnan's personality, as Jeremy is for Aramis and Gerard for Porthos. They really screwed up on Athos though. BLEH!).

In short, I made myself watch it so that I could go to the last hoping for some bit of accuracy to the book. Certainly not enough to satisfy anybody who has any respect for the books. None.