The Mask of Zorro vs The Legend of Zorro

He's been the star of 60 stories, been the main character for 40 films, has been in both live action and animated tv shows, and has been the inspirations for countless comic strip/comic book characters. Relax I'm not gonna make you guess. I'm referring to Zorro which is spanish for fox. He made his debut in 1919 in the serialized story The Curse of Capistrano. Zorro is the alter ego of Don Diego de la Vega a nobleman and master with the sword and the bullwhip during the Spanish colonial era of California. In the 90's the big screen rights to Zorro became available. On a documentary that I saw on the dvd for what became 'The Mask of Zorro" I learned that lots of studios and production companies were vying for these rights. The people in charge of them sold em for less because one leading industry light promised his personnel involvement in the film. Who is individual? It was Steven Spielberg who served as executive producer. I don't think I need to explain who Steven Spielberg is. Nor do I need expound upon his enormous contributions to cinema. With him on board the everything went pretty smooth. First there was the choice of director. It was decided that Martin Campbell would man this important post because he had just help relaunch the Bond franchise. With that issue settled next came casting. Anthony Hopkins was approached for the important role of Don Diego de la Vega because of the prestige he would bring to the project as well the gravitas he would provide. He initially declined the role because he was suffering from a back condition. However he had back surgery which alleviated the condition and allowed him to take the role. Next came the role of the younger man who would take over the mantle of Zorro. For this role it was another easy choice Antonio Banderas. He made history as the first Hispanic to play this role. With those two on board Spielberg exerted his influence and had cast as the leading lady a young actress he had seen in a tv movie about the Titanic. Her name was Catherine Zeta Jones and this provided to be her big break. By the way Steven if you should see this post please contact me I have a few ideas for movies. Folks this film was the reason movies were made. Three powerful actors who have a great screenplay at their disposal and are being guided by a man who knows how to get the best out of both them and the screenplay. Plus Banderas and Zeta Jones don't just have chemistry they smoulder in each other's presence. I doubt you will ever see two people who look more right together but also intellectually and emotionally belong together. The stunts are phenomenal. This picture also took the time to build in humor. This adds to the picture's enjoyment. Rarely have I ever enjoyed myself more at a movie. If only they would make more movies like this than film would be a better place. This film was hit with the public ($250,288,523 worldwide) as well as the critics (85 % of critics gave it a favorable review according to Rotten Tomatoes an on-line movie critic database). Not surprising in light of this success a sequel was planned and made. If only this wasn't the case. The first film can be summed by Catherine Zeta Jones' character after her sword fight with Zorro "vigorous." This one "The Legend of Zorro" can be described by one I ascribed to it-paunchy. That how Antonio Banderas looks and that how he and the film act. The smoldering chemistry that existed between him and Zeta Jones has evaporated. This film really suffers from the loss of Anthony Hopkins whose character died at the end of the first one. To be fair it took seven years for this follow-up to made. In Hollywood the rule of thumb is to try not to take longer than five years to make a sequel. Otherwise the public might forgot. The plot is so convoluted I'm not even going to attempt to describe it. The first one had a good one about Hopkins and Banderas wanting revenge against the two main villains for personnel reasons and the villains trying to buy California from Mexico with stolen gold from Mexico that Mexico didn't know about. In addition to the lack of chemistry that now exist between the two leads; the writers who wrote the first film, but this time around only came up with the story had the stupid idea of seperating them. This diminishes any chance Banderas and Zeta Jones might have had of regaining their chemistry. The way they are separated might be the most ludicrous in film history. So bad is the plot and this movie I had forgotten that one of the villains in this movie was in it! I had my memory jogged on this point when I was looking up info on wikipedia. The lead villian the always excellent Rufus Sewell is even defeated. If you want to see how great a villian he can be see either "A Knight's Tale" or "The Illusionist". The film resorts to the cliche of the super kid. He happens to be the son of Zorro. Wisely the filmmakers drop this before it gets too irritating. While the film did ok at the box office ($142,400,065 worldwide) it was dud with the critics (25% gave it a favorable rating according to Rotten Tomatoes). When a sequel is this bad it almost kills the pleasant memories of the first film or films. Its because of sequels like this that sequels have the bad name they do and usually deserve. With this said please do yourself a favor and see the first one. You'll be glad you did. On the other hand please do yourself a favor and skip the second one. You'll be glad you did!