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From beginning to end, The Mask of Zorro plays as a
fairy tale. It begins and ends with the current Zorro telling
his new child fantastic adventure stories. Between the two bookends
we get our own fantasy tale. The problem is…it gets a little
too fantastic. The opening sequence works well, it’s a sort
of camp we can enjoy. The town is in trouble caused by an evil
man, people wonder where Zorro is, he comes and saves the day
and then rides off into the sunset. It would have been wonderful
had it ended there. The rest of the film tries to move forward
by brushing off the fantasy, but unfortunately brushes off the
reality right with it.
The story begins as the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony
Hopkins), is discovered by the evil Don Rafael Montero (Stuart
Wilson). His wife is killed and his baby girl stolen. 20 years
later, two rascally brothers are caught by the evil Don Luiz (Tony
Amandola) and one of them is killed. The surviving brother, Alejandro
Murrieta (Antonio Banderas), then vows revenge on Luiz. Diego
and Alejandro meet up and the former decides to train the latter
to be the next Zorro so they can get revenge on their respective
enemies. This is all very convenient, because not only are Rafael
and Luiz now teamed up together, but they are planning on taking
over all of California. The rest of the story is self-explanatory.
The only other thing to be mentioned is that Rafael has reared
Diego’s daughter, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and she
and Alejandro meet and of course fall in love with each other
immediately.
Nevertheless, the majority of the film is actually fairly fun.
The picture is pretty, costumes are all very nice, and sword-fighting
is in abundant supply. We get continual action (with the in between
breathers of course) and a fun musical score to back it all up.
The action, full of stunts and improbabilities, often becomes
so absorbing we forget what all the fighting is about in the first
place. Each of the characters obtain a hundred opportunities to
kill their enemies, but seem to wait only so that it can all happen
at the end. Banderas actually does fairly good at coming off as
a rapscallion that he really is while pretending to be a cultivated
super hero. Unfortunately though, the whole Batman/Bruce Wayne
thing doesn’t work as well here as it does in Batman
and frequently feels forced.
But, after all, Zorro is just a fairy tale full of adventure,
romance, courage, and all. Perhaps it really is just a story to
tell our children at bedtime – it’s likely one they’ll
want to hear again.
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