PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 10/28/05)

When we last left our hero seven years ago, Don Alejandro de la Vega, a.k.a. Zorro (Antonio Banderas), had assumed the mantle of the masked crusader, defended the peasants from an evil exploiter, met a fiesty and beautiful senorita named Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), married her, and became an expectant father. As such, Mask could have easily existed on its own as a passable take on the character and a worthy chapter in Zorro’s film legacy. But it’s hard to leave well enough alone, particularly in an industry so used to squeezing bank from onions that when a decently executed film like Mask comes along, the temptation to franchise proves too great.

Legend could have been a disaster for no other reason than after Mask, it appeared that director Martin Campbell and company had completed the square so to speak. A Zorro happily married to Elena could have been the nail in the tire of any sequel attempt, considering the first film owed so much of its success to the competitive and romantic tensions between the two characters. Luckily, Campbell realized this, and so rather than paint Zorro and Elena as caricatures in marital bliss, he made them a real married couple, that is to say, miserable. Elena is tired of her husband’s swashbuckling ways, which she begins to suspect are more gallivanting than crusading, and believes Don Alejandro has reneged on a promise to be a good father to their son. Joaquin de la Vega, unaware of his father’s alter-ego, worships Zorro, and sees his Papi as a contemptibly twee and indulgent aristocrat. Don Alejandro, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly aware that he’s becoming a bit more Don Quixote (Hey Antonio, is that a turkey neck?), and finds himself torn between obligations to his family and to his people. It’s the familiar nagging wife/restless husband scenario, but here the characters are strong enough and the play on the situation nuanced enough that it feels fresh, even if it isn’t. Particularly Elena is saved from stereotype by her characteristic stubborness and independence. Zorro’s handling of the situation is a bit more by-the-numbers, but hey, he’s Zorro.

The family dynamic, paired with a few delicious action scenes, is engaging enough that we hardly notice the fillm’s major flaw, a rather flimsy and sometimes jingoistic subplot having to do with California’s independence and the attempt by a nefarious French (of course) count (Rufus Sewell) to “destroy America” with a stockpile of nitroglycerin. The Legend of Zorro is a predictable sequel that’s miles away from, say, Indiana Jones, but it’s still fun in a Saturday matinee kind of way. And while this should signal the end of Banderas’ tenure as the man in the mask, with the right casting, the exploits of the next Zorro, Don Joaquin de la Vega, could prove interesting.—Ryan Devlin