The stakes are higher, the set pieces grander and new heroes arrive, along with new villains, in “The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady,” the second half of the sprawling, brawling and fresh French take on Alexandre Dumas’ beloved novel.

Eva Green‘s ferocious version of the spy Milady de Winter steps center stage for this film, with Cardinal Richeliue (Eric Ruf) stepping into the background as more sinister figures are introduced, all striving the topple King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel), plunge France into religious civil war and make it easy pickings for those interfering Protestants, the Brits.

It’s hard to top Faye Dunaway’s delicious turn in the Milady role in the riotously entertaining Richard Lester “Musketeers” of the ’70s, but multi-lingual Green more than holds her own in the fights, the feints and the fury of a woman on a somewhat ill-defined mission to undo so much of what the menfolk have been scheming to bring to pass.

The assassination attempt that the Musketeers foiled in the climax to “Part I” has repercussions that extend in many directions. The Queen (Vicky Krieps) and her intrigues with the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) are in the clear. But others are still out there, plotting.

Young D’Artagnon (François Civil) might be engaged in the traitor-hunt thanks to his duties as a king’s musketeer. But the dastardly plotters have taken his beloved Constance (Lyna Khoudri) and made this personal. So of course brooding Athos (Vincent Cassel), dashing Aramis (Romain Duris) and burly hedonist Porthos (Pio Marmaï) are dragged in as they are separated, with all fated to meet again in a confrontation at the seaside fortress of La Rochelle.

A new count (Patrick Mille) figures in their plans.

“I am Henri de Talleyrand Perigord, Comte de Chevalier!”‘

“So many words, such a small person!”

There is no smack talk like 1627 French smack talk. And at every turn, there is Milady, slicing, stabbing, seducing and insulting.

“So handsome, and yet so stupid” (in French with English subtitles).

The swordfights are almost as furious as in the first film, just fewer in number. Her the emphasis is on set pieces, sweeping scenes of a city beseiged, a fleet engaged with a heroic artilleryman of noble birth, “Hannibal to my friends” (Ralph Amoussou) bringing a little diversity to this oft-told-tale.

Cassel and Green are the class of this cast, but there isn’t a false note acted or swashbuckled in front of the camera.

The pace is brisk enough to allow us to lose track of just who is allied with whom, and more than once. And the finale suggests that all involved don’t know when to drop the mike, take a bow and move on.

But Martin Bourboulon’s two films more than hold their own with Hollywood’s best versions of this classic cloak-and-swordplay mystery, preserving the surprises and adding a few fresh ones to iconic, noble-hearted “All for one, and one for all” heroics.

Rating: unrated, violence, seduction

Cast: François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, Vicky Krieps, Louis Garrel, Lyna Khoudri, Ralph Amoussou, Eric Ruf, Marc Barbé and Eva Green.

Credits: Directed by Martin Bourboulon, scripted by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas. A Samuel Goldwyn release.

Running time: 1:53