'The Mask Of Zorro' Ended The 'Batman' Phase Of Superhero Cinema

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/07/17/15-years-ago-the-mask-of-zorro-ended-the-batman-phase-of-superhero-cinema/?sh=6772836f3d5c

Despite being a game-changer in a hundred different ways (a 20th anniversary financial retrospective), Tim Burton's Batman did not usher in a new golden age of big-budget superhero films. Batman truly plays less like a modern action thriller than like a 1940's pulp gangster picture. Especially in its first half, the film feels like a smokey film noir story that happens to involve a giant bat and a gangster who turns into a killer clown. While Batman technically takes place in the present, it feels like a 1940's set thriller that has dashes of modern technology, an idea that would be borrowed for Batman: The Animated Series three years later. Batman has a sensibility that doesn't so much render it timeless, but a rather authentic adaptation of the first three years or so of the original Bob Kane/Bill Finger "The Bat-Man" comic book stories. Actually, all four original Batman films are faithful versions of a specific era of the Batman comic book, but that's a conversation for June 23, 2014.

Why this is important is that it explains the kind of comic book/superhero films that we did see after Batman. With one exception that I'll get to later, pretty much every would-be 'next Batman' was a 1930's or 1940's-set period adventure film. Dick Tracy, The Rocketeer, The Shadow, and The Phantom all followed in Burton's footsteps, and all were financially disappointing, if not outright bombs. The insanely underrated Dick Tracy was more a victim of outlandish post-Batman expectations, becoming the first $100 million-grossing "flop". The other comic book adaptations we saw several years later were explicitly futuristic and/or post-apocalyptic in nature, but they too (Judge Dredd, Tank Girl, Barbed Wire, etc.) also met unfortunate box office ends. The problem was that audiences, especially younger audiences, didn't know who these older pulp heroes or cult comic book characters were and there wasn't enough star power to make them care.

The post-Batman era was marked by period-piece 1930's/1940's era adventures that didn't have the star power or cultural cachet to even flirt with Batman's mammoth success. The period piece adventure films of the post-Batman era that were hits, such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Disney's The Three Musketeers, were sold as all-star ensembles that happened to be reinventions of classic stories. Even if you didn't care about Robin Hood in 1991, you probably cared about Kevin Costner and remembered Alan Rickman from Die Hard. The Mask of Zorro of course fits squarely in this category. It was sold as less 'the Zorro movie you never knew you wanted!' and more as 'watch Antonio Banderas play the only Spanish superhero you may have heard of, co-starring Anthony Hopkins and directed by the guy who helmed GoldenEye'. In the post-Batman era, if you depended on the popularity of your source material, you usually died at the box office. If you had something to offer in terms of real star power (think Will Smith in Men In Black), you would be just fine even if no one knew the comic or radio show your film happened to be based on.

The one comic book adaptation that hit it big after Batman was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which grossed $200 million worldwide on a $14 million budget in spring 1990. It was among the only major comic book adaptations of this era that was based on a property that the moviegoers of the day actually wanted to see onscreen. We weren't getting new films for the comic book and pulp serial superheros that audiences of the day actually cared about (Spider-Man spent the era tangled in legal webs), but rather period-piece adventures starring kid-unfriendly draws like Warren Beatty and Alec Baldwin that all hopped to be 'the next Batman'. Spawn, in 1997, was the other rare post-Batman comic book adaptation which both more-or-less took place in the present and depended on fans of the source material for its success. It was the rare comic book hit as well, earning $87 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. A year later, The Mask of Zorro closed the book on this initial phase of superhero cinema, fittingly enough by being among the very best of its era.

As a film, Martin Campbell's terrific reinvention is a near-peerless example of how to rejuvenate a classic character for a modern audience. Superb acting, a witty and intelligent screenplay, three-dimensional characters, and top-notch action and stunt work shot and edited for maximum clarity, The Mask of Zorro is a nearly perfect superhero picture. As an action drama, it stands in the same esteemed company as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die Hard, and whichever 007 film happens to be your favorite.