Just in case we couldn’t figure out Antonio Banderas could kick some serious butt in “The Mask of Zorro,” “The Legend of Zorro” has returned to prove it in 129 long minutes.

It’s been 10 years since Alejandro (Banderas), or Zorro, married the prestigious Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and despite the pleas of his wife, Alejandro cannot seem to give up his swashbuckling heroism and spend time with his family. When wills clash at home and Zorro is needed to save the citizens of California from their latest debacle, Alejandro finds himself having to vie for his wife, struggle to raise his son, untangle a conspiracy and still manage to trounce the bad guys.

This time, we get to see a lot of long, drawn-out action, but it’s more mind numbing than engrossing. The old-fashioned swordsmanship which dominated a lot of the classic Zorro action scenes has been compromised: We now get guns and big-time explosions in every scene director Martin Campbell could possibly fit them in.

Though the script is clever and hits just the right element of humor, the endless fighting is very staged. Petty arguments between Alejandro and Elena seem to be just filling time. For a plot with so many twists and surprises, “Zorro” manages to waste enough time slowly unveiling itself to keep the suspense at a minimum. It is hard to completely squelch out the old-fashioned romanticism and glory of the tale, though, and for all its tediousness, the plot does retain enough Zorro nostalgia for hard-core fans to be satisfied.

What will be reassuring to die-hard Zorro fans are the performances – notably Banderas’. He’s still Zorro, as alive and excited in this movie as he was in the previous one. The performance of the excellently cast Zeta-Jones has not wavered either, and Zeta-Jones’ radiance seems, somewhat intriguingly, to have been frozen in time.

Perhaps the most entertaining character of the bunch is the newly-added son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso), who impressively steals every scene.

Like most sequels to really good films, “The Legend of Zorro” simply cannot compare to its predecessor. It is obviously trying too hard to be bigger, better and more explosive and ends up slightly boring in the process. But because of a reliable cast and the momentum of a heartwarming legend behind it, “Zorro” is still a worthy see.