Film is forever.
In the rush to plunder the vaults for ready-made heroes, Hollywood has set their sites on the 1930s and 40s. Hell, there's plenty of material to work with, from art deco sets and snappy clothes to villains dripping with WWII evil. In the process, the filmmakers reinvented Hollywood, scrubbed Dave Stevens' comic clean, and turned Timothy Dalton into the lamest villain since Snidely Whiplash. Hey, at least we got to look at Jennifer Connolly. Oh, I mean Jennifer Connolly's boobs.