superheroes you think could've been pulled off in the 80's

[mrrockey]

When you consider the special effects limitations of the 80's, which superheroes do you think that didn't make it to the big screen back then, could've been pulled off well?

For me, I can see them doing a Captain America movie not unlike a Schwarzenegger or Stallone film at the time. I think they can pull off SOME of the X-Men characters such as Cyclops or Toad but I can't picture them being able to do characters like Sebastian Shaw or Wolverine very well. I think an accurate representation of Hulk or Spidey would've been impossible for the time.

Who do you think could've been pulled off in the 80's?

Discusss...

[johnnygobbs]

When you consider the special effects limitations of the 80's, which superheroes do you think that didn't make it to the big screen back then, could've been pulled off well?

For me, I can see them doing a Captain America movie not unlike a Schwarzenegger or Stallone film at the time. I think they can pull off SOME of the X-Men characters such as Cyclops or Toad but I can't picture them being able to do characters like Sebastian Shaw or Wolverine very well. I think an accurate representation of Hulk or Spidey would've been impossible for the time.

Who do you think could've been pulled off in the 80's?

Discusss...

Interesting question.  Of course, you do know there was a 'Captain America' in 1990, right mrrockey?  It wasn't very good though, but story-wise it has the right idea and the Red Skull makeup was pretty good.

Personally, I don't think it's down to special effects.  You could argue that 'Superman', 'Superman II', 'Batman '89', 'Batman Returns', 'The Rocketeer', 'Dick Tracy' and 'Flash Gordon' have all dated in terms of effects because no those films would be entirely CGI, but they're still all great films on the basis of story, directorial vision, music and top performances/casting.  Then again, the issue with 'Superman IV' and 'Supergirl' wasn't poor special effects per se, but a lack of production budgets even by the standard of the period they were made.  It just seems no one was properly committed to making a fully-realised film in those cases, and with 'Howard the Duck' the story and the idea was just badly conceived.  That said, 'Howard the Duck' would be a marginally better film today because Howard would look much better in CGI than as a man in an inexpressive and creepy rubber costume.

As for the characters you mentioned, Spidey's webshooters would be harder to depict as far as giving him the impression of swinging through the city, but it wouldn't be impossible to convey using a mix of bluescreen and animation for the webs.  Villains like Doctor Octopus and the Lizard would be tough to do without CGI, but the Green Goblin could easily have worked back in the 1980s, maybe even better as an organic looking mask rather than a stupid Power Rangers type costume.

I do agree with you about the Hulk however.  Lou Ferrigno in green paint doesn't really cut it as far as the big-screen goes.

[mrrockey]

Yeah, I've seen various clips of the 1990 Captain America movie on Youtube. But I still brought Cap up because I'm talking about if these characters were being adapted in the 80's with the budget and respect from the studios as they are today.

I agree with you that good storytelling matters more than special effects. As much as I love old-fashioned practical effects, a lot of the times, they just don't look as realistic as big-budget CGI. Superman definitely looks better flying in CGI than with the old front projections. But those films and the Burton Batman films still work for me because of the solid writing and directing.

Bluescreen and animation could get the job done for Spider-Man but what I said, was that I don't think it was possible at the time to do an ACCURATE representation of Spidey's agility and speed from the comics. In terms of the villains, I think Doc Ock could be done with strings being pulled for each of his mechanical arms and maybe have the camera being undercranked to add more speed to the arms'movements. For the Lizard, I think seeing a stop-motion version with animatronics for the close-ups would be pretty cool. It'd be more visually appealing to look at his awful CGI work in The Amazing Spider-Man.

[riddler]

I'll list off the modern ones I've seen (which are all the ones except all the x-men)

Wolverine; I don't see why not, the technology was there but the mutating would have been tough
the Flash; it was done on a small budget TV series
Green Arrow; yes
green lantern; no
aquaman; probably not, all the water scenes would run up a budget
the hulk; was done
spider-man; would have been very very tough
fantastic four; doubtful. Check the 1994 clips
deadpool; well he didn't exist in the 80s but could have been done
ghost rider; no
daredevil; probably although the CGI helps with the radar sense
iron man; doubtful although he was discussed for the last incredible hulk bill bixby movie.

[johnnygobbs]

I'll list off the modern ones I've seen (which are all the ones except all the x-men)

Wolverine; I don't see why not, the technology was there but the mutating would have been tough
the Flash; it was done on a small budget TV series
Green Arrow; yes
green lantern; no
aquaman; probably not, all the water scenes would run up a budget
the hulk; was done
spider-man; would have been very very tough
fantastic four; doubtful. Check the 1994 clips
deadpool; well he didn't exist in the 80s but could have been done
ghost rider; no
daredevil; probably although the CGI helps with the radar sense
iron man; doubtful although he was discussed for the last incredible hulk bill bixby movie.

Aquaman could only have been made in the late 1980s directed by James Cameron (who of course directed the comic-book adaptation starring Vincent Chase on "The Entourage") and featuring an 'Abyss'-sized budget.  I reckon it would have been a big hit coming off the back of Burton's 'Batman'.

[riddler]

I'll list off the modern ones I've seen (which are all the ones except all the x-men)

Wolverine; I don't see why not, the technology was there but the mutating would have been tough
the Flash; it was done on a small budget TV series
Green Arrow; yes
green lantern; no
aquaman; probably not, all the water scenes would run up a budget
the hulk; was done
spider-man; would have been very very tough
fantastic four; doubtful. Check the 1994 clips
deadpool; well he didn't exist in the 80s but could have been done
ghost rider; no
daredevil; probably although the CGI helps with the radar sense
iron man; doubtful although he was discussed for the last incredible hulk bill bixby movie.

Aquaman could only have been made in the late 1980s directed by James Cameron (who of course directed the comic-book adaptation starring Vincent Chase on "The Entourage") and featuring an 'Abyss'-sized budget.  I reckon it would have been a big hit coming off the back of Burton's 'Batman'.

I guess the technology was close enough. Waterworld came out in 1995 and for all the criticisms of it, the effects were fairly impressive (though the budget was astronomical)

[The Joker]

Spider-Man would have been interesting in the 1980's, but one thing is for sure, Cannon films were definitely NOT the studio that you would ideally place as being in charge of such a project.

In the age where practical effects had to be implemented on a large scale, it would have taken a very innovative filmmaker, along with a more generous budget than Cannon usually offered, to have made the idea of bringing Spidey to life in the '80's work at all. I doubt that we would have seen Peter Parker in all out Spider-Man action until the final battle with the villain (Gobby? Doc Ock?), I think if done correctly, and in that John Hughes style, the film could have been very charming if it stayed close to those early Lee/Ditko comics. Not sure if I would have preferred Michael J. Fox, or John Cusack in the role, but either would have been engaging for Peter Parker.

[riddler]

Spider-Man would have been interesting in the 1980's, but one thing is for sure, Cannon films were definitely NOT the studio that you would ideally place as being in charge of such a project.

In the age where practical effects had to be implemented on a large scale, it would have taken a very innovative filmmaker, along with a more generous budget than Cannon usually offered, to have made the idea of bringing Spidey to life in the '80's work at all. I doubt that we would have seen Peter Parker in all out Spider-Man action until the final battle with the villain (Gobby? Doc Ock?), I think if done correctly, and in that John Hughes style, the film could have been very charming if it stayed close to those early Lee/Ditko comics. Not sure if I would have preferred Michael J. Fox, or John Cusack in the role, but either would have been engaging for Peter Parker.

I think we can assume if it happened, the last film in the series would have been terrible; canon was notorious for it; if they got a successful film they'd cut the budget for the sequel and hope that they got the same ticket sales with less expenses.
James Cameron could have brought us the best one at the time.

[The Joker]

I think we can assume if it happened, the last film in the series would have been terrible; canon was notorious for it; if they got a successful film they'd cut the budget for the sequel and hope that they got the same ticket sales with less expenses.
James Cameron could have brought us the best one at the time.

Too true. I guess the best, or most often cited examples of those ill practices would have to go to Superman IV, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2.

Agreed on Cameron. I remember very much hoping that a Spider-Man film would get made during the early to mid 1990's when I became aware of James Cameron's interest in directing thru various movie magazines at the time. One particular article, which highlighted the litigation, but remained somewhat hopeful, even posted a promotional item made for a 1993 release.

[riddler]

I wonder what would have happened if Michael Beihn played spidey first? I know he's been in films and such but he never did a big film again after Terminator.

I think it would have been more similar to the newer spidey films. It's hard picturing the likes of Beign playing the nerdy Parker although Maguire went full nerd instead of half nerd (yes i'm paraphrasing Robert Downey Jr.) Michael J Fox may have been decent; he was short but could do action and be funny. I keep picturing back to the future but there were plenty of scenes there which could have been portrayed into Peter Parker; crying over Doc and his fathers death (Uncle Ben), the skateboard/hoverboard scenes as his action sequences (having a little fun with it), of course that film did have a bully similar to Flash thompson, the middle act of the second film got dark. And the marty character himself was flawed (should they have gone the symbiote route).