Part of the reason that the trend toward superhero cinematic universes is so popular today, is because it's something that fans would have loved to have seen in the past, though they never had the chance. This is a great example of a missed opportunity. Somebody has gone back and recut a trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice using Michael Keaton's late 80s Batman and Christopher Reeve's late 70s Superman. Linda Carter's Wonder Woman even gets in on the action. Check it out.
The trailer, put together by Strider HD, is actually quite well done. It combines actual audio from both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with some from the original films as well. The vast majority of the visuals come from the classic film versions as well, though there are a few shots from Dawn of Justice as needed to fill out the setup. There's some pretty solid work here, including giving us brief shots of the classic Ma Kent and Alfred beginning to speak in such a way as to make it look like they're actually beginning to speak the modern lines. It's a nice touch.
If there's a problem with the trailer, it's that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gets a little slighted once again. Whether it's intentional or not, the one character from the new film who doesn't come off looking great is Doomsday. In this version, he's played by the Nuclear Man from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Not exactly the high point for the Reeve franchise. Although, we can't argue that the parallels between the creation of the two characters are certainly there. Both were creatures created by Lex Luthor from Kryptonian DNA in order to destroy Superman.
For an entire generation of movie fans, these are the two definitive movie versions of the two most popular comic book characters ever created. Certainly, the kid version of me, whose first experience of having to stand in a line outside a theater to see a movie was 1989s Batman, would have loved to have seen these two on the big screen together. 1978s Superman was the first great comic book movie, which paved the way for Batman, which, in turn, paved the way for pretty much every other comic book film we've seen since.
While we'll never truly get to see these classic film versions of Batman and Superman on screen together, we still have all of their old movies around to enjoy. And we finally do have a DC Extended Universe to enjoy. Still, some of us will always wonder what it would have been like to have something like that back in the 80s. The special effects might have been rough, but it would probably still have been a great thing to watch.
