Stallone Blames 'Batman' for Decline of '80s Action Heroes

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

"It was the first 'Batman' movie," Stallone told the Times, in reference to the 1989 movie adaptation starring Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader. He went on to say, "The action movies changed radically when it became possible to Velcro your muscles on," a clear dig at how the trim Keaton was encased in a sculpted Batsuit for the film. Stallone joked, "I wish I had thought of Velcro muscles myself... "I didn't have to go to the gym for all those years."

Stallone adds that the director Tim Burton's stylish take on the superhero story changed what audiences expected from an action flick: "It was the beginning of a new era. The visual took over. The special effects became more important than the single person. That was the beginning of the end."


http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-sylvester-stallone-blames-batman.html (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-sylvester-stallone-blames-batman.html)

[launchpad20]

This from the same guy for would later play 'Judge Dredd'. (I AM THE LAAAW!) :rolleyes:

[Invidente 7]

This from the same guy for would later play 'Judge Dredd'. (I AM THE LAAAW!) :rolleyes:
Yeah, but he didn't need a velcro muscle suit to fit in Dredd's costume :mad:

[Wonderwall]

He did however fit a cod piece on before Bats did.

[Time Wizard]

In my opinion the decline of 80s action heroes began once they started to become dull....blaming Batman.....how odd. Batman is much cooler than 80s action heroes anyways. :D

[Wounded_Dragon]

There's action hero and then there's super hero. Personally, I think action heroes wore thin when they repeated the same plot over and over, just with different names and places.

[hobbyfan]

There's action hero and then there's super hero. Personally, I think action heroes wore thin when they repeated the same plot over and over, just with different names and places.

Good point. Stallone's Rambo series is exhibit A in that regard.

[stephane dumas]

There's action hero and then there's super hero. Personally, I think action heroes wore thin when they repeated the same plot over and over, just with different names and places.

It's around the same era when another kind of "action hero" beginned with Bruce Willis on his role of Detective John McClain in the "Die Hard" movie series, the 1st one was released in 1988 set at a building in LA and the 2nd in 1990 set at Dulles airport near Washington, DC.

[launchpad20]

There's action hero and then there's super hero. Of course when you think about it, The Punisher could almost be classified as an 'action hero' since he has all the basic traits of one. He may not have super powers, but his highly trained military skills make up for it. :shrug:

[Zorak Masaki]

Didnt Jean Claude Van Damme and Stephen Seagal's popularity start in the 90s? They tapered off pretty quick, but their legacy remains.

[Wonderwall]

Didnt Jean Claude Van Damme and Stephen Seagal's popularity start in the 90s? They tapered off pretty quick, but their legacy remains.

Well for Segal his first movie was in 1988 and JCVD first big one was also in 88. I think they just barely squeak into the 80s for me but their popularity was at it's peak in the early to mid 90s.

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

It's kind of ironic that as a character Batman in his crusade against crime is all about pushing himself to and beyond the limits of human perfection, both mentally and physically -- yet Tim Burton decided to take a short cut with the character's physicality and make a rubber molded muscle suit. Thankfully Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins recovers that missing aspect of the character by showcasing the physical training and conditioning, which is highlighted by Christian Bale's true muscle build (despite the fact that a molded rubber suit is still utilized as the costume's protective armor).

But although Tim Burton may have lost sight of that single important element of the character with his 1989 Batman film, he still helped pave the way for many of the superhero films that followed and the genre of comic book movies as whole.

I can understand and agree with Sylvester Stallone's point about creating the "special effect" of muscles instead of working hard to produce the real thing, but I don't necessarily think Batman is the blame for the decline of action heroes; If anything, I think Batman helped diversify the "action" film genre, by helping to redefine its heroes and establish a new flavor of action to replace the bland formulaic plots that became common to many of the post-Viet Nam action movies of the 80's.

[Rick Jones]

I think Die Hard definitely had more impact on the action genre post-80s than Batman did. Even with the success of the Batman movies, other dark comic book superhero movies weren't really taking off until after Blade and X-Men hit.

When the first Die Hard came out, I still remember being in disbelief that the guy from Moonlighting was some big action star now. He was pretty much an average joe in comparison to the body builders and kickboxers that previously dominated the 80s. By the mid-90s, we had guys like Keanu Reeves and Will Smith becoming action stars. Guys who, while in good shape, were kind of unusual casting for the type of bloated action movies that Arnold and Sly helped to pioneer. As far as special effects laden movies are concerned, movies like Terminator 2 and The Abyss were pushing way more boundaries than Batman.