All you really need to know about this miscalculated mess is one early plot point: Zorro (Antonio Banderas) and the love he won in the first film (Catherine
Zeta-Jones) get divorced. You might think this means that the sequel to 1998’s The Mask of Zorro – which breezily captured the happy-go-lucky tone of the legendary hero – makes the crucial mistake of getting serious. It does that, yet it also makes mistakes in the opposite direction. When The Legend of Zorro isn’t absurdly somber, it’s childish. By the time Zorro’s young son engages in a pencil-and-ruler duel with his teacher, the movie has
completely lost its predecessor’s touch.
