Review of The Mark of Zorro

This version is too political and stagey to be a children's movie, but it's too simpleminded and obvious for grown-ups. (I suppose this makes it a Family Movie.) It's very conventionally scripted, staged, shot, scored, and edited, and a lot of the opportunities just seem to go to waste. (At the beginning there's a beautifully shot scene where the hero, concealed as a friar, urges the love interest to stay away from the convent, but the dialogue is so trite the scene is just dull.) Power is good with a rapier and he does a decent job with the lines he's given, but he's just not a swashbuckling Spanish nobleman, not even with a moustache on. There ain't no way. (He's too melancholy; he lacks the bounding vitality of Flynn and Fairbanks.) Darnell is a worthwhile inclusion as eye candy, and the swordplay is well staged and very exciting. Unfortunately, there isn't much of either Darnell or the swordplay. This is a pretty routine, talky action flick.