Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl deservedly takes most of the plaudits for launching the old-fashioned swashbuckler to heights it hadn’t experienced in decades. However, as well as Martin Campbell’s fantastic The Mask of Zorro, Kevin Reynolds’ 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo shouldn’t be forgotten about, either.
As you’d expect from the regular Kevin Costner collaborator responsible for Waterworld and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the visuals are suitably sweeping and sumptuous, even if the accuracy to the source material was placed under scrutiny. That being said, a Reddit thread looking back at the film more than 20 years on from its release has made the well-founded argument that it succeeded because it deviated away from being a 100 percent slavish translation, and it’s hard to disagree.
A little creative license never hurt anyone, and the fact The Count of Monte Cristo recouped its $35 million budget more than twice over from theaters – and holds modern-day Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings of 73 and 88 percent from critics and audiences respectively – paints the picture of a light and breezy romp that nobody seems all that interested in making anymore.
That’s almost exactly what it is down to a tee, and The Count of Monte Cristo could even find itself winning even more new fans when they realize it’s packing the first major feature film credit of baby-faced teenager Henry Cavill’s career. Whatever happened to that guy? Seemed like he had some potential to go pretty far in the industry…