Yet, however imposing its grosses, however many kids in developing countries wore T shirts with the logo that is supposed to look like a bat in a halo but inevitably suggests a gaping mouth with five rotten teeth, the film was wan, jangled, lost in meandering murk. It is a funny, gorgeous, midsummer night's Christmas story about . . . But hang on. Like a superhero for cinema, Batman Returns arrives in the nick of time.
Movies are in big trouble.
Top directors like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese remake their own or other people's movies. So does everybody else. They lack the vision thing. The first Batman seemed a symptom of that malaise. Batman Returns is an antidote.