Young D'Artagnan (Chambers) dreams of becoming a Musketeer just like his father and trains with him daily.  When Cardinal Richelieu's ruthless follower Febre (Roth) comes to collect a tax from D'Artagnan's father, he refuses and both he and his wife are killed.  The boy vows vengeance but decides that the best way to honour the family name is to follow his dream and become a Musketeer.  After many years of training he goes to Paris to apply but finds that the  Musketeers are currently suspended thanks to a devilish plan by the Cardinal to instigate war between France and England.  It's up to the skillful D'Artagnan to prove his worth so he can join the Musketeers and unite them against the Cardinal.

As you can see from this short synopsis, very little remains of the original characters and story created by Alexandre Dumas for this remake so that a solo D'Artagnan can become the main hero.  This may have worked if Chambers had been able to carry the role and the script had a little meat to back him up but sadly it all goes down like a bit of a wet fish.  Chambers' poor line delivery is only outdone by some of the cheesy dialogue he is given and the love story he plays out is so emotionless that it will have you feeling embarrassed for the actors.  Roth and Deneuve are given cameos to add recognisable talent but have so little to do that it hardly seems worth their while whilst the director makes the most heinous of crimes and allows all involved to speak in English, French and American accents that doesn't exactly do wonders for the realism of the film.

Hung Yan Yan (credited here under his Chinese name of Xin Xin Xiong) really adds the only muscle to the production that made audiences want to see the film.  For HK fans he is best remembered for his outstanding work as stunt double for Jet Li in the 'OUATIC' movies and it is apparant that he has fond memories of this time as he draws upon their choreography for inspiration.  Sadly, Hyams' directing really spoils some of his more enthralling ideas by placing the scenes in dimly lit rooms.  We understand that this helps him to hide the stunt doubles but do you really need to obscure the action to a point where it becomes an irritation?

It's always common for a popular style of action to become overused in mainstream cinema and it looks like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' has really ignited the latest flame in Hollywood.  I'm not convinced that this kind of action is suited to all styles of movies and is only inserted here to try to breath new life into an aging story that is poorly updated.  'The Musketeer' is just about watchable as an adventure film, if only thanks to the Yan Yan's input, but is nowhere near as exciting as the trailer implies.