We all get old...even masked swordsmen who live a double life as a crusading champion of the oppressed and as an innocuous landowner and father.

Ten years after Don Alejandro - aka Zorro - (Banderas) and the feisty Elena (Zeta Jones) tied the knot, he's still playing the dusty Robin Hood to California's poor.

It's 1850 and the people are seeking to become the 31st state of the union (presumably they don't have an inkling that Arnie's going to be in charge 100 years on).

However, there are unscrupulous individuals who want to ensure California stays as it is and Zorro decides to ensure the passage into the union goes smoothly.

Trouble is long absences from his hacienda mean Elena - El Trouble and Strife - hardly ever sees him and his 10-year-old son Joaquin doesn't really know who he is.

Faced with an ultimatum, Zorro throws a strop, saddles up and rides off into the night while Elena serves divorce papers and takes up with French aristo and rouged popinjay Rufus Sewell.

At the same time, wooden-dentured robber baron McGivens (Chinlund) is secretly working for shifty Rufus and turfing honest-to-good farmers off their land. It's time for Zorro to make his mark.

This sequel to the 1998 original reunites Banderas, Zeta Jones and director Martin Campbell but lacks the wow factor that made The Mark of Zorro such a cracker.

There's no denying the action setpieces - particularly a train packed with nitro-glycerine thundering down the track - are impressive and the fencing sequences are delivered with a balletic savagery.

However, at two hours plus it sags badly in the middle, the stars seem to be going through the motions while Adrian Alonso's Joaquin is firmly from the thumpable mall brat school of casting.

It's still watchable family entertainment. But it feels dated. Perhaps Zorro is feeling his age.

Tim Evans