Released days before the September 11 attacks, it was moderately successful in North America but did not perform well in other countries, and received largely negative reviews from critics.

Fourteen years later, the adult d'Artagnan finds on his arrival in Paris that the musketeers have been disbanded by order of Richelieu, who plots to usurp the king's authority and render him a powerless figurehead.

Febre, on orders from Richelieu, incites a mob to attack the royal palace during a state dinner for Lord Buckingham, a visiting English dignitary.

D'Artagnan, with the help of Porthos, Aramis and another musketeer, Athos, saves King Louis, the queen, and Lord Buckingham from being hurt or killed.

Afterwards, Francesca recruits d'Artagnan to make a clandestine trip to the north coast of France with the queen to meet with Buckingham in an effort to keep peace between the two countries.

D'Artagnan returns to Paris and convinces the surviving musketeers that their responsibility to the crown remains their highest priority, and they join him at the castle where Francesca, the queen, and Lord Buckingham are being held.

The senior d'Artagnan was never a musketeer, but his son is encouraged to enlist due the family's noble Gascon background, which it shares with many members of the guard.

While the Queen has a volatile relationship with Louis XIII, Lord Buckingham is not her lover and the diamond studs subplot[5] is absent, as is Richelieu's spy Milady De Winter.

[10] It was one of several Three Musketeers adaptations in the works at the time: others were being pitched at Columbia (by Damon's former Vision associate Jon Peters), Disney and Tri-Star.

Quintano's version was put on hold, and would later be revived at Vision's successor company, MDP (Mark Damon Productions) Worldwide.

[9] The project resurfaced in the press in the spring of 2000, with Peter Hyams—who had helmed two films starring Diamant's usual leading man Jean-Claude Van Damme—now directing.

[11] The swashbuckling tale's wire fu makeover was Diamant's idea too, as he had previously worked with Xin-Xin Xiong on Tsui Hark's two Van Damme vehicles, Double Team and Knock Off.

[22] Despite interest from the local population, casting agents struggled to find suitable extras to portray a bygone peasantry, as most modern inhabitants of rural Southern France lacked the rough facial features desired by production, and looked too urban.

[27] Some specific Paris locations were based on buildings in Toulouse: the Royal Palace is the redecorated Capitole, while Richelieu's residence is the Convent of the Jacobins.

[28] The Toulouse part of the shoot was briefly disturbed by a dispute between local extras and Auzielle-based Capitole Productions, who had hired them on behalf of the film's main producers.

[29] The production also incorporated locations from Gascony, the actual region where d'Artagnan grew up, although they do not necessarily represent their real-life counterparts in narration.

[6] The same month, MDP entered final negotiations with Universal and Miramax, who teamed up to buy the film's North American and U.K. rights for $7.5 million.

[40] Industry professionals saw the promotional focus on martial arts and the trailer's extensive rotation ahead of Universal's teen comedy American Pie 2 as the main factors behind the film's relatively successful launch.

[43] The Los Angeles Times thought otherwise, suggesting that the film's independent producers would find it hard to break even internationally after selling the U.S. rights for a modest amount.

[37] In Germany, which contributed much of the film's budget, theatrical release was compromised by a falling out between distribution partners Helkon and Buena Vista,[49][50] and eventually cancelled in favor of a home video premiere nearly two years after its U.S.

[18][48] Nonetheless, sales of the film's rights, combined with efficient tax optimization,[52] made The Musketeer a positive venture according to MDP, contributing $27 million to the company's revenue and helping it back in the black after several difficult years.

The website's consensus states that "Hong Kong inspired action sequences take center stage in this latest Three Musketeers adaptation.

"[58] The Musketeer received similar criticism to the 1993 version, to which it is most often compared, with many feeling that the integrity of the source material had been compromised in an effort to cater to a younger, casual audience.

[59] Stephen Holden of The New York Times argued that "The Musketeer conflicts with itself by trying to blend grand old-school costume drama and MTV-style rhythm and attitude in the same movie.

"[42] The teen romance between d'Artagnan and Francesca was equally poorly received: The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan equated it to "a child's idea of romantic love".

[61] Boxoffice Magazine did not object to the story's reimagining, judging it "less disgraceful" than Disney's film and 1998's The Man in the Iron Mask, but contended that Hyams and editor Terry Rawlings were out of touch with the requirements of Hong Kong choreography in terms of coverage and clarity.

[63] The Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas, an exponent of popular action cinema, called the film "robust and handsome".

[67] Despite some pushback over his character's unnecessary inclusion, a number of reviewers singled out Tim Roth's unhinged performance as Febre as the most enjoyable aspect of the film.

"[68] The Musketeer has drawn some—mostly unfavorable—comparisons to Brotherhood of the Wolf, a contemporary Universal release that mixed romanticized European history and Asian martial arts.