Script-wise it's a mise en abyme within other mises en abyme, a narratological cat-and-mouse game by Dumas and history fans for other fans! If only it was longer than 1h55 which imposes the action to go at breakneck speed with way too many ellipses and shortcuts undermining the deployment of emotions aroused by the great pieces of bravery this script went for. It also probably makes a lot of less Dumas-obsessed viewers miss the inventiveness and playfulness of this beautifully crafted story which seems a bit rushed or messy without the 30 extra minutes this movie would have needed to land all its zingers properly with more pauses and contextualization... Even if we still have a great time and admire the effort, it makes the whole final part (about 20 minutes) of the movie feel a bit too much like a telefilm instead of an adventure epic because it goes forward in all directions like a headless chicken final flourish where they basically throw the kitchen sink at us without any pauses and hope we can take it. With less great actors it would have definitely crossed the line but because they're all awesome, we still play along with the preposterous film editing and silly pacing. There better be a director's cut. Bourboulon you owe us one. Nonetheless the pleasure is fourfold - read till the end because the last one is the clincher. Basically Eva Green's impersonation is absolute box office and warrants the ticket alone. First, they mischievously mix all the stories of several key characters together and into new characters who are Dumas universe "mutants" gathering several books or historical characters into one (fictitious Huguenot rebel Saint Blancard mixed with La Rochelle mayor Jean Guiton saying his famous tirade about "piercing his heart if he cannot defend the city", here enters black musketeer Aniaba the Assinian prince, absent Felton now rubs off on Bonacieux...). In addition to being an ingenious way of both honouring the overly dense source material subtly and simplifying it to make it fit in a high-octane 2 parter film, it's a super enjoyable "aha moment" when the knowing spectator finally clocks what they have done and the new implications for the storylines. This way, they found the most beautiful motivation to justify Milady's rage for survival and revenge in a little J. And it's a new character who is left in a convent and not Miss Bonacieux amongst other twists and turns... but I won't say more. Secondly, they recontextualise the story in true historical events that Dumas skimmed over which gives the adventures much more life-and-death and changing-the-course-of-History weight and the opportunity for great action sequences i.e the siege of La Rochelle and marshal Schomberg and Toiras's taking of the citadel on the islet of Ré (Saint-Martin-en-Ré) to boot Buckingham and his fleet away from the Huguenot bastion and the French coasts...They are now impersonated by Treville and Chalais and their troops in an impressive 17th century Assault on Alcatraz-type special forces nightly commando mission sequence where double and triple crossing agents will appear in quick successions! Thirdly, it inventively takes a historically accurate counterpoint to Dumas' version which may confuse or delight international audiences in rehabilitating Richelieu and Louis XIII and highlighting the true historical traitors and plotters..It also plays on that Dumas-created myth of the corrupt power-hungry Richelieu to hold our attention until the end because he's no angel nonetheless... It also uses Porthos and Aramis and Louis Garrel's still impressive portrayal of the king as subtle comic reliefs which is a delight! Finally, as the title suggests, it really does a narrative semi-reversal on Milady and even if we don't see the action fully from her point of view as one may have expected, her presence and dazzlingly incandescent portrayal by Eva Green makes her character and her spell-binding influence ever-present even when she is not lighting up the screen directly. Both thanks to portrayal and narrative changes (a backstory and new circumstances of encounters with her antagonists), Milady has never been more of an ambiguous survivor force of nature who is deeply obsessed with revenge and openly diabolical for sure but with motivations almost anyone on this planet can partly understand...She does manipulate perpetually, her audience, her circumstances, her charms but we can see through cracks that it is more because of being self-serving and forced to resilience than deeply held machiavellism or megalomania...Or is it? Even if all of the above does not appeal, it's worth paying the ticket price just to see one if not the very best ever portrayal of Milady de Winter on the big screen. She puts shivers down the spine every time she appears and in a particular emotional climax scene she can even draw tears, just before a sudden laceration of our feelings questioning if we were wickedly played or just opportunistic collateral damages she does not have the luxury to care about in her obsession to reach her goal despite the absence of malice...Maybe a bit of both. The ending is very Miladian, as sadistic as a last dagger thrown in our direction before fleeing with her precious bounty but not without making sure we know who's signed the crime. Is it a cliffhanger? I bloody hope so. Bring on Part 3 and 4 and even 5 if needs be!

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