If you look at Brit director Paul W.S. Anderson's CV, that includes Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon and overseeing the ongoing Resident Evil franchise, you wouldn't think of him as your go-to man for an action flick set in ye olde times.

What he has managed to achieve is a positively modern twist on this much told tale, which is unlikely to be to the liking to purist fans of Dumas' novel.

Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans) and Porthos (Ray Stevenson) are members of an elite guard to Louis (Freddie Fox), king of France, otherwise known as the Musketeers. Their latest mission finds them in Venice, seeking out the plans to one of Da Vinci's most secret designs, that of a battle air ship.

With the help of the extremely able M'lady (Milla Jovovich), it's not long before they have the plans in their hands. Unfortunately for them they have little time to pat themselves on the back for a job well done, as M'lady double crosses them by working in cahoots with their arch-enemy, the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom).

A year later and the three of them are going about their business back in Paris when a young whippersnapper by the name of D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) comes crashing into their lives. After inadvertently calling all three of them out to duel each of them to the death, they find that they have a common enemy in Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen), the right-hand man for Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz).

After a set-to with Rochefort, they decide to take D'Artagnan under their wing. All four of them soon find themselves helping out the Queen (Juno Temple), who is being royally set up by Richelieu. Their mission is no ordinary one, as it involves taking on their old enemy Buckingham once again, who has a trick or two of his own up his splendid sleeves.

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Right from the off, Anderson makes it clear what his influences are. Anyone who has played any of the Assassin's Creed games will notice the similarities that some of the killer moves made by characters in the games share with those made by some of the Musketeers in the early scenes of the film. Considering the director's obvious love for video games, this is far from surprising.

Anderson then embarks on a cinematic journey that takes on board elements of Pirates of the Caribbean and, to a lesser extent, the recently re-vamped Sherlock Holmes franchise. It works well too, taking four well known characters and spicing up their adventures with the kind of swordplay you would expect alongside some well-crafted set pieces that haven't really been associated with Musketeers in the past. Competing on the level of spectacle alone, it holds up well.

It was a brave move by Anderson to not put any big names into Musketeer shoes; in the past the likes of Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland have all been Musketeers. The most recognisable name on Anderson's bill comes by way of Orlando Bloom who jumps ship, quite convincingly it has to be said, to play the baddie of the piece.

The Musketeers he does choose struggle to make their characters larger than life, even in 3D. Their personalities get lost in a story that takes the shine off its eponymous heroes somewhat. Although the story is straightforward enough, other characters get more screen time than they would normally. This gives the likes of Freddie Fox more time to ramp up their roles; he impressed in the recent BBC drama The Shadow Line as Ratallack, and taps into a deep well of charm here for his role as Louis. Waltz does the bare minimum for his part as the scheming Cardinal and still manages to make an impact. And despite the obvious nepotism, the director's wife Jovovich takes a lot of the skills she's picked up from the Resident Evil series and uses them to good effect. At the same time, she also gets to show a more glamorous side than usual.

All of these other characters somehow take away the brashness and bravado of the Musketeers, making them seem a little dull in comparison. It almost feels like they all have spent so much time in the shadows in previous supporting roles that they're just too apprehensive about stepping up into the limelight and putting on a show.

Their semi-drab performances aren't completely to blame; the script certainly could have been more acerbic and wittier than it is as far as they are concerned, which is a surprise considering that the talented Andrew Davies (responsible for writing BBC classics like A Very Peculiar Practice and Tipping the Velvet, as well as both Bridget Jones films) was involved with the screenplay.

That said, Anderson does breathe new life into a tired classic with his box of visual tricks. Even the 3D version proves to be entertaining. The door is clearly left open for a possible sequel, where some of these disappointments could possibly be addressed.

As it stands, The Three Musketeers proves to be engaging and enjoyable fun, it's just a shame that its Musketeers failed to give it their all for one and one for all.