This swashbuckling adaptation understands the true essence of great cinema

The Count of Monte Cristo
is a classic novel that has been adapted many times for the screen, and while many may remember the title from assigned readings in high school, this new French version of the story is quite different. Of course, The Count of Monte Cristo it hits the revenge beats that are vital to the story, but it's not afraid to use Alexandre Dumas's narrative as a starting point rather than a strict guideline. With a budget of over $46 million, this addition to the book's history is an epic worth committing to.

Just under three hours long, The Count of Monte Cristo It's the kind of grand soap opera tale we're looking forward to. It was written and directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte. The Count of Monte Cristo stars Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantès, aka The Count of Monte Cristo, and is accompanied by a fantastic cast. One of the younger characters, Albert de Morcef, is played by Vassili Schneider from the French vampire film The Vourdalak. Albert finds himself unwittingly caught in the Count's crosshairs for no other reason than his ancestry.

For all its tragedy, The Count of Monte Cristo makes the book's story more hopeful

Edmond is still tortured, but he is not as condemned as in the novel

Spanning over 20 years, The Count of Monte Cristo sees the familiar rise and fall of Dantès. After his happiness is destroyed by three rivals, he swears revenge on them and executes a brilliantly twisted revenge plan. For those unfamiliar with the story, the twists and turns will leave you shocked, and Dantès' deliberate march into darkness will leave you not knowing who to root for. There is a lot of heartbreak and disappointment throughout the story, but The Count of Monte Cristo There's too much ground to cover to let yourself wallow.

Although it is a long and winding story, The Count of Monte Cristo rarely drags; There is so much action that it is necessary to maintain a propulsive pace to do justice to the most important moments. However, this means that some sequences are a bit rushed. While Dantès' time in prison is just a prologue in many ways, the film could have more effectively established his relationship with Abbé and the torture of his years of isolation. For Dantès's single-minded path of revenge to make sense, we must believe in the destruction of his soul.

Since the narrative gives us so much ammunition to despise the evil Fernand de Morcerf, Gérard de Villefort and Danglar, It doesn't matter much that part of the prison and its immediate consequences are condensed. It's easy to get carried away by Dantès' genius and begin to thirst for revenge along with him, only to realize how many people are being caught in the crossfire. There's little to argue against, as it's the kind of film that doesn't seem to be made anymore, reminiscent of a time when good cinema was the thing of the year.

The changes that The Count of Monte Cristo The changes to the original text are predominantly for the better, as Dantès's endings in the original book and the popular 2002 American film are very concerned with providing a fairy tale-like happily ever after. The film wrote the best conclusion for Dantès that I have seen so far, because the filmmakers seem to understand him and the nature of revenge almost better than Dumas himself. There is no doubt that he goes too far and loses the man he once was, but he could never be the man who would one day marry Mercédès.

Every moment of The Count of Monte Cristo is vividly real and tangible

With beautiful sets and sequences filmed on location, the film is engaging from the first scene

In a world of green screens, incomplete scripts and predictable narratives, The Count of Monte Cristo It's a breath of fresh air. It's been years since a film of this scale managed to make good use of its budget with exaggerated sets and locations that feel as real as the characters. Of course, it wouldn't be The Count of Monte Cristo If only there wasn't a good old-fashioned sword fight between Dantès and Morcef during the film's conclusion, and Niney and Bastien Bouillon deliver, as the entire story has been leading up to their inevitable confrontation.

The Count of Monte Cristo is both a swashbuckling adventure and a warning about the dangers of getting lost in desire for things that don't matter. With a beautiful soundtrack that elevates each scene, making them more tense, romantic and devastating, and sets and costumes on par with the best period pieces of the 21st century, everything in the film is planned and carefully executed. The Count of Monte Cristo sees the value in waiting for the perfect moment, finally providing the book adaptation the world has been waiting for.

The Count of Monte Cristo will be in theaters on December 20, 2024.