Lost and Forgotten Superhero Movies of the 1990s

The world, particularly the United States, has long had an infatuation with the superhero. In many ways, it's an American twist of the ancient Gilgamesh myth. It's not surprising that as superheroes began their rise in the 1930s, the motion picture industry was also maturing, and that an intersection of these two mediums would eventually happen. At the time, technology did not exist to allow people to lift cars or fly through the air (or appear to do so), and audiences contented themselves with serial cartoons. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, live-action superhero films began to proliferate, fueled by the success of Richard Donner's Superman in 1978.

It would be more than twenty years later that Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000) kicked off a new era of superhero blockbuster film franchises, but that's not to say that the 1990s weren't filled with superhero films. The Batman series saw itself veer into campy irrelevance with Batman & Robin in 1997, which effectively killed the Dark Knight on film for years. At the same time, the success of the now-nearly forgotten but infamous The Crow in 1994 (its star was killed in a filming mishap) proved a market for darker, adult-oriented superhero fare. As it was, many lesser-known films came out at the same time that tried many approaches. Many were poor, some were plain bad, but they influenced the special-effects spectacles that have dominated the last decade of cinema. What were some of these now nearly-forgotten films? Read on.

The Rocketeer (1991)
If one speaks of lavish period superhero/adventure stories, they must mention The Rocketeer. Okay, so the titular character doesn't have superhuman abilities, but he does have the ability to fly via a wicked prototype jetpack. Like many heroes, The Rocketeer was spawned from nostalgic 1980s comics, and, in fact, it was ahead of its time; creator Dave Stevens began heavily pitching the character to studios in the mid-1980s, before Batman reaffirmed. the superhero as a viable movie property.

Eventually, Stevens got his funding from Disney. After many stops and starts in production and much give-and-take between Disney and the filmmakers, the project began photography in September 1990. Stevens remained heavily involved in every aspect of production, a rarity in the business. The film made it to United States audiences in June 1991, where it flopped at the box office; its $46.6 million in box office receipts barely covered its budget (1).

The disappointing return is somewhat surprising, seeing as it came on the heels of the popular, if critically panned Dick Tracy, and coincided with a rise in superhero films; its retro feel and audacious art deco marketing may have hurt it (2). Despite a generally positive critical response, the low financial return and acrimonious relationship between the filmmakers and Disney resulted in the planned sequels being canned.

The Fantastic Four (1994)
Hollywood is a tough place, and wrangling enough funding and securing the rights to create a licensed and sanctioned adaptation of an entertainment property can be difficult and expensive. It's often years between when a film is made and when it appears on screen. Sometimes, the lucrative nature of film rights leads to a poor product.

And such is the case with The Fantastic Four. In the early 1990s, Neue Constantin Films owned the rights to the four costumed superheroes, but those were due to revert back to the Fantastic Four's creators, Marvel. The only real way to keep the rights which they had paid for was to start production on a film to exercise those rights. Thus they started production on a film which they had no plan on releasing (3).

Principal photography began December 28, 1992. The project's director was Oley Sassone, who had worked on many small-budget features-invaluable experience, considering the film's paltry $1.5 million budget. Sassone approached the admittedly-small project with gusto, hoping to give the film character development where special effects could not be adequately employed. The cast included Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith as the Fantastic Four (with Carl Ciarfalio the body double as The Thing) and Joseph Culp as the FF's big villain, Doctor Doom. While not A-list actors, this rather-respectable group was lured with the promise of larger returns on finishing the film.

Ultimately, however, Neue apparently let the cast and crew promote the film with no intent on ever releasing it. After filming and postproduction, the movie was scrapped by late 1993, but accounts as to why vary. Either way, it's probably for the best: asbad as the more recent 2000s vehicle was, we can only imagine what the earlier version's effects and superhero abilities looked like on a shoestring budget. Copies are hard to come by, and only bootleggers have a chance to score this film (4).

The Shadow (1994)
The Shadow was one of the great pulp heroes of the 1930s radio dramas. Rather than super-speed, he had a limited ability to "cloud men's minds", and mostly administered justice with trusty revolvers. The film adaption was filled with rising stars-Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, and helmed by Russell Mulcahy. Even more promising was that the screenplay was written by David Koepp, who not only had a respect for the source material but had produced highly successful scripts before it, most notably Jurassic Park (5).

So what went wrong? While planned as the start of a blockbuster franchise, The Shadow was neither a critical or commercial hit. It made $48 million worldwide, barely clearing its budget and certainly not a major hit (6). It's unfortunate, as the noir period piece in many was had a darker and more compelling hero than The Dark Knight, but ultimately the film was a missed opportunity. Good news is that Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) is interested in returning to a remake project; this is definitely a fine property that could use a good entry (7).

The Phantom (1996)
The Phantom was always a rather odd superhero, born from the mind of comics creator Lee Falk in the 1930s. The Phantom is mortal, but as the mantle has passed from father to son for generations, he's believed to be "the man who never dies". He also runs around dressed in purple and a domino mask, and rides a white horse.

Plans for a film adaptation materialized time and again, but never proceeded into serious pre-production. In the 1990s, the project resumed; director and producer Joe Dante worked on the film and developed the early script; after the project was delayed, Simon Wincer took over directing duties. Filming began in October 1995, with location shooting across Los Angeles, Australia and Thailand.

As it turned out, The Phantom suffered a similar disappointing response as other period superhero pictures. Critical response was mixed, but the movie only grossed $17 million of its $45 million budget in the United States (8).

Steel (1997)
Unlike the other films referenced, perhaps the film was forgotten for good reason. Young people today might not remember it, but there was a time when sports stars appeared ready to take over Hollywood. You had Michael Jordan in Space Jam, and then you had Shaquille O'Neal in a string of 90s films which were all uniformly bad. For whatever reason, O'Neal was cast as the armor-clad Superman hero Steel. The film essentially divorced itself from the shadow of the Man of Steel and created its own continuity.

Steel had its origins with music producer Quincy Jones and his partner David Salzman. Kenneth Johnson, initially not a fan of superhero films, wrote and directed. Despite delays due to O'Neal's involvement in the 1996 Olympic Games, the film was released August 15, 1997. The film was a massive commercial bomb, grossing just $1.7 million on a budget of $16 million (9). Critical opinion was sharply negative; Variety dismissed the film as distracting to children and mind-numbing for adults (10).

While it's tempting to say that we've passed the age of bad or under-appreciated comic book movies, keep in mind that even big-budget films can be stinkers (see Spider-Man 3.) Ultimately, The Rocketeer, The Shadow, and The Phantom are worthy rentals, and a look back into a world gone by.

References
* (1) "The Rocketeer - Box Office Data". The Numbers. Accessed March 29, 2010.
* (2) Beradinelli, James. "The Rocketeer". Reelviews. Accessed March 31, 2010.
* (3) Wheeler, Jeremy. "Fantastic Four > Overview". Allmovie. Accessed March 30, 2010.
* (4) Brady, Terrence. "The Fantastic Four-Gotten." Teako170. Accessed March 27, 2010.
* (5) Schwager, Jeff (August 13, 1994). "Out of the Shadows". MovieMaker. Accessed March 29, 2010.
* (6) "The Shadow". Box Office Mojo. Accessed March 31, 2010.
* (7) Williams, Owen (March 5, 2010). "Fox Buys Sam Raimi's Shadow". Empire. Accessed March 31, 2010.
* (8) "The Phantom - Box Office Data". The Numbers. Accessed March 20, 2010.
* (9) "Steel". Box Office Mojo. Accessed March 31, 2010.
* (10) Klady, Leonard (August 5, 1997). "Steel Review". Variety. Accessed March 31, 2010.