Catherine Zeta-Jones back as Elena in 'The Legend of Zorro'

"The Legend of Zorro" is set several years after the conclusion of the previous adventure. Alejandro (Banderas) and Elena (Zeta-Jones) are married and have a 10-year-old son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso). Though Alejandro continues to don the mask of Zorro to protect the poor and oppressed residents of the California territory from the greed of the overlords, he is torn between his duty and his desire for a more normal life.

Meanwhile, Elena forces Alejandro to choose between his family and his crusading alter ego. When an unexpected crisis forces Alejandro to once again don the mask of Zorro, Elena feels betrayed and kicks him out of the house. Soon after, she serves him with divorce papers.

When a former schoolmate of Elena's, the French aristocrat Armand (Rufus Sewell), moves to California to start a winery, he is thrilled to discover that Elena has separated from her husband. He immediately begins to woo her. "This film is filled with so many different elements," says Zeta-Jones. "There's familial love, romance, a great deal of humor. We would never have embarked on this voyage if we didn't really believe it would be even better and more magical than the first. I think we topped ourselves this time, due in part to the added element of introducing our son Joaquin, whom you meet and quickly learn to love."

In addition to bringing director Martin Campbell's action talents to bear on "The Legend of Zorro," Zeta-Jones continues, Campbell has heightened the humorous elements that were so satisfying in the first film. "He really allows the humor to come through amidst all the action, especially in the use of the Zorro theme. It makes the movie so much fun. Also, there is no heavy violence in the movie. It relies on the beautiful artistry of swordplay. The fights are amazing, wonderfully paced and stylized."

Speaking of fight scenes, everyone had more to do in the sequel, including Zeta-Jones. In the first film, she was more of a damsel in distress. In this one, she is definitely one of the heroes. She has three big fights. "I think that if I hadn't already been trained so well by fight coordinators Bob Anderson and Mark Ivie on the first movie-trained really classically-coming back and picking it all up again so quickly would not have been as easy," says Zeta-Jones, "and my fights in this movie wouldn't have turned out so smoothly. There was something that came over me when I had a sword in my hand. It was so empowering. It's a fantastic athletic sport and I should actually do it as a hobby because it's very physical." - Columbia Pictures