Back in the 1980s, they were the biggest stars in Hollywood, both in terms of box-office receipts and bicep circumference. But the glory days of the brawny action heroes -- Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, and the like -- eventually faded. In their place, a new breed of '90s star took over: younger, leaner, and nowhere near as macho. By decade's end, Keanu Reeves was a huge action star (shudder to think).

Where did it all go wrong? According to an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sylvester Stallone puts the blame squarely on the caped shoulders of one comic book hero.

"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."

Stallone's view of the genre