After escaping from the prison cell in which he’s spent twenty years, Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins)--the first man to bear the mantle of the legendary folk hero Zorro--begins training a thief named Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) as his successor. Together they attempt to stop Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson)--the man responsible for Diego’s imprisonment--from turning California into his own private empire, and reunite Diego with Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the daughter he lost two decades earlier.

CRITIQUE

I used to enjoy this movie quite a bit (I bought it on DVD at least twice, including the Superbit release), but that enjoyment has waned somewhat over the years. As I sat watching it this last time, I started losing interest at several junctures, and the cracks in the filmmaking really started to show. I think I know why: those damn Pirates of the Caribbean movies. See, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the primary writers on those flicks, were also responsible for the final draft of this movie’s script. And much like those movies, The Mask of Zorro thinks that the best way to give an audience its money’s worth is to overstuff a movie.

Now I’m not saying that overstuffing a movie--which in this case means packing it to the bursting point with action and humor--is necessarily a bad thing, but Elliott and Rossio either don’t know when to quit or what to cut (or maybe even both). Their scripts are generally overlong and lumpy, moving in fits and starts. This movie begins with a bit of action, then slows down for a long--long--spell before finally kicking back into gear, after which it once again slows down for another long--long--spell.

Further, it takes more than an hour for the plot proper to kick in. And the climax drags. And because we’ve seen so much (admittedly cool) gunplay and sword-fighting in the first two acts, what we get in the third just seems like more of the same. Even though the two Zorros are fighting mano a mano the men who’ve wronged them, the fights don’t feel any more consequential than the ones that have come before. Sounds a lot like a Pirates flick, huh?

I suppose it’s a case of familiarity breeding contempt here. We’re dealing with a handful of movies that are similar in tone, content, and quality, so I suppose it’s only natural that they’d at some point start coalescing into one indistinguishable mass. It would help if at least one of these movies was undeniably great (like, say, Raiders), but that’s not the case.

At best they’ve been merely good, and “merely good” doesn’t lead to longevity when there’s so much similar product on the market. It’s odd that this movie’s effectiveness has fallen victim to another franchise’s success, but I honestly think--in my mind, anyway--that’s what has happened. This is still a perfectly okay action-adventure movie, but that’s nevertheless a step back from what it was a decade ago.

Remember that compliment I paid the movie in the midst of all that moaning, the one about the good action? Well, it is good. Director Martin Campbell (who replaced Robert Rodriguez, who bailed when Sony refused to add another million or two to the budget; Campbell shut down preproduction and put the script into a rewrite, which ended up costing the studio more than what Rodriguez had asked for) and his stunt team stage several great sword fights (one or two too many, but whatever) and a great horse chase. And despite the fact they’re all a good ten years too old for their roles (and two of them are from the wrong side of the Atlantic), the three leads are all very good, helping buoy the movie through its lengthy lulls.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC onto a 50GB disc--nicely preserves the movie’s dusty, earthy look. The rich color palette, which features everything from baked oranges and reds to lush greens, is reproduced very well. The level of visible detail is augmented by the sun-drenched photography (most exteriors look flat-out fantastic), although there are brief moments where the image flattens out (look at the courtyard crane shot shortly before Rafael’s introduction). Overall, though, this is a very solid effort.

THE AUDIO

The Mask of Zorro arrived just as mixers and engineers were getting a firm grip on the possibilities of digital surround, and the movie was afforded a lively, very active mix, one that is well replicated by this disc’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (which is available in English, French, or Portuguese).

Although it’s not as smooth as the best current mixes, the entire soundfield is put to excellent use here. Dialogue sounds good (which will allow you to spot the flaws in the accents). Low end action is just a shade on the inconsistent side; the impact of gunfire wavers from scene to scene, and the climactic explosion doesn’t boom as much as a similar one midway through.

A Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also included; English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The extras here are largely culled from the 2005 DVD re-release (which was timed to coincide with the release of the sequel), although the photo gallery that was included on that release has been dropped. All of the video-based extras are presented in standard definition. 

The commentary by director Martin Campbell is a bit on the dry (and British) side, but it’s fairly packed with technical info.  

Unmasking Zorro (45 minutes) is a rather good making-of documentary, beginning with the character’s pulp origins and continuing all the way through the movie’s post-production phase.

Two deleted scenes (5 minutes), one of which is a rather dopey alternate ending, are also included.

The sole new extra here is another of Sony’s movieIQ tracks. When activated on a player with an active Internet connection, this track provides a stream of real-time trivia and facts about the movie.

You also get a music video for Marc Anthony and Tina Arena’s “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You.” (If you’re thinking no song with that title could possibly be anything other than a nightmare, you’re absolutely right.)

In a rather puzzling move, Sony has seen fit to include both a scene from and a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of The Legend of Zorro (5 minutes). No one was fooled when this material was included on the aforementioned 2005 disc, but including it here makes no sense. Not only was The Legend of Zorro released on Blu-ray two years ago, everyone’s already aware that it’s an awful movie.

FINAL THOUGHT

Recommended to fans, but anyone new to the party should definitely considering renting first.