The Legend of Zorro

Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell
Running time: 130 mins
Certificate: PG


The Legend of Zorro, set ten years after the events of The Mask of Zorro, opens with Alejandro (Zorro) living a relatively settled life as a family man. However, having broken his promise to his wife Elena (Zeta-Jones) by refusing to hang up his cape, our masked hero finds himself deserted and divorced by his wife (quite a feat for Catholics in 1850), who to his surprise has flown to the arms of wealthy villain Armand (Sewell) with their son Joaquin (Adrian Alonso) in tow. The jealous folk hero then sets out to win Elena back from the clutches of the smarmy Armand, who coincidentally is plotting the destruction of America.

Unfortunately, the film is an unconvincing imitation of everything that made its predecessor so watchable. The Mask of Zorro had a pretty decent plot, sizzling chemistry between the leads, an enjoyable sense of humour and exciting swashbuckling action – sadly, none of this is true of Legend.

The acting really leaves a lot to be desired, with the lead actors being less impressive than the supporting cast. Banderas’ performance is below his capabilities whilst Zeta-Jones’ Elena seems to have undergone something of a transformation since the last film thanks to the scriptwriters. Gone is the strong, fiery and passionate young woman of Mask - she now just comes across as a whining nag with very little depth who insists on trying to look sultry at anything that moves whilst mustering negligible chemistry with her husband. Sewell’s portrayal of Armand isn’t up to much either – his feelings toward his newly-acquired woman are a mystery throughout. Meanwhile, the bratty Joaquin is in the running for the most annoying child character of the decade.

In the actors’ defence, the dialogue they have to work with is hardly spectacular. Having succeeded with witty one-liners in Mask it seems that the film’s makers wanted to equal that movie’s achievements. Unfortunately, the invariably cheesy humour falls flat more often than not. The cast themselves occasionally seem to recognise when the dialogue is particularly awful, giving the distinct impression that they really don’t want to be saying it. Another odd source of supposed humour is Zorro’s cartoon-like smoking and drinking horse.

Action-wise, the film is fairly unremarkable. There’s plenty of it, but there’s little original or interesting but rather a display of swashbuckling-by-numbers and familiar set-pieces. What detracts slightly from our hero’s daring doings is the fact that he hardly seems to be an exceptional fighter when compared with everyone else. His son back-flips about the place like a trained gymnast whilst a farmer’s wife turns from a damsel in distress to a formidable fighter without warning. Strangely, the bad guys of questionable motive (you can tell who’s a bad guy quite easily – they tend to be bearded, unwashed with bad teeth or the smarmy moustachioed type at the other end of the spectrum) don’t seem to be half as talented as the rest of population of California.

The Legend of Zorro is perhaps a half-decent film if you’re satisfied with a string of set-pieces held together by an uninteresting and predictable plotline. There are a handful of genuinely funny moments, but the film hardly offers 130 minutes of non-stop entertainment and if anything succeeds in making the boredom even longer than it does.