The Legend of Zorro

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Rey P Apr 21, 2019 The Legend of Zorro (2005) 4 out of 10: The sequel to the well-received The Mask of Zorro is a disappointment. One might argue it borders on the outright bad. Let's see if we can find out why. Or at the very least we can put on paper a litany of complaints about various things in this overstuffed two-hour long movie. The Good: There are two great performances in this film â" Julio Oscar Mechoso as the tough Padre Frey Felipe and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Zorro's wife. Catherine Zita-Jones doesn't look a day older than she did in the first film and still does excellent work with her fight choreography and acting. The late Julio Oscar Mechoso humanizes his character of the monk teacher who takes care of Zorro's son, and he has a gentle, quiet toughness to him. The movie lights up whenever these two actors are on the screen. There are also some great action scenes in the film. Not nearly enough however for a movie that is over two hours long and feels like four but welcomed still the same. The Bad: Unfortunately, for The Legend of Zorro, Catherine Zeta-Jones not aging makes Antonio Banderas look even that much older. Antonio is too old to play Zorro in this film. He looks tired, puffy, a bit sick. Forget believing Antonio is backflipping off of buildings. Antonio seems as if a fifty-yard sprint would wind him. He reminds one of Roger Moore in (well any of the James Bond movies now I think about it) but unlike Bond, Zorro is a swashbuckler, and that is a fit man's game if not a young man's game. Rufus Sewell as the bad guy in this film is all wrong. Weak, sniveling with a bad guy plan that looks as if it escaped from the Wild Wild West script. Sewell is a European aristocrat who is a member of a secret organization of well other European aristocrats who are afraid of America and as a result, want to prevent California from joining the Union. We will get to the history in a minute but Sewell is the kind of villain who has a giant lair complete with a snake strangling the world statue and he is having a meeting with all his European counterparts (How they got to California is again a mystery we will get to), and Sewell gives them his diabolical plan, and one of the compatriots says this is madness I will have nothing to do with this. This is of course followed by the obligatory I told you my secret plan, and you announced you are against me, but you are free to leave. Sewell then throws a bottle of Nitroglycerin (Again we will get to the history stuff in a minute) at the man's feet killing him but not blowing up his secret lair or hurting anyone else. Yeah, he is that kind of villain. Oh, and Sewell has Zorro tied up with a knife at this throat but decides not to kill him after all because Catherine Zeta-Jones asked him not to. This is understandable in a Catherine Zita-Jones could talk me into anything kind of way, but Sewell is still too stupid to live. Where was I? Oh yes, history. Okay here is the basic plot (or plots). Catherine Zeta-Jones is being blackmailed by the Pinkertons to divorce Zorro and take up with our villain Rufus Sewell who is trying to prevent the vote for California statehood as part of his diabolical plan to weaken the United States. He teems up with the Confederacy promising them nitroglycerin in exchange for allowing them to run native Mexican Americans off their farmland for the new railroad. Okay, gold was found in California in January 1848. California stopped being Mexico about ten minutes later in February 1848, and the population exploded. The Compromise of 1850 is how California became a state. There was no vote in California and because of the gold rush America had no idea how many people there even were in the state. The Compromise of 1850 is something one learns in school with all the black and white sketches of Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas. It is one of the most famous pieces of legislation from the 19th century. So we can quickly establish that 1850 is when this movie takes place, and there was no actual vote for statehood. (California was under a Military Governorship and was an occupied territory.) Here are the various things that did not exist in 1850. Confederate soldiers, railroads in California, a way to get to California that wasn't five months long or filled with peril, Pinkertons, and Abraham Lincoln; (Well Abraham Lincoln did exist as he was a legislator in Illinois at the time, I am referring to the Abraham Lincoln who was at a non-existent signing ceremony celebrating a non-existent vote while on a non-existent railroad and being threatened by a non-existent train filled with more nitroglycerin than probably existed in the world at that time.) In Conclusion: All the complaints above really wouldn't matter if the movie didn't feel twice the length that it was and lead Zorro, Antonio Banderas didn't look like he was recovering from a particularly nasty bout of malaria. What a difference seven years makes. See more

Draco W Aug 21, 2017 Decent follow-up to the fun original Zoro adventure with Banderas & Jones.

Han S Jan 23, 2017 The Legend of Zorro unevenly blends fun action with drama to create a hybrid of a film that is bland more than it is exciting.

Luke S Jan 13, 2017 It's good movie to watch

Anakin S Jun 22, 2015 The Legend of Zorro can be funny because of his talented cast, but it has a lot of cliches, and a lot of flaws at his plot, like Zorro is everywhere. Predictable and with a weak screenplay. See more

Draco R Jan 30, 2010 For the most part this film is as entertaining as the first and it certainly provides drama as Zorro must make choices between living in glory as a hero and settling down to be more present as a father and a husband. However the plot outside of the family affair is more outlandish and in ways resembles the plot to the ridiculous Wild Wild West. Where an ancient European order influence southern state politicians and militias to start a civil war by causing a large nitro glycerin explosion during the ceremony for California statehood. Of course the ultimate goal of this order is...you guessed it WORLD DOMINATION. That said however the plans of villainy are just comic-book style excuses for Zorro to swing into action. As well it allows Zeta-Jones in on the action as she has in secret been blackmailed to become a spy by U.S. pinker-tons. Despite the zaniness the film remains largely grounded and the light hearted adventurous spirit of the first film remains completely in tact. See more

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The Legend of Zorro

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