The Caped Crusader and Kids

I’m 36 years old, happily married and a mother of two small children. My husband and I enjoy a night out occasionally when we can find the money, time and baby-sitter to do so. Recently we arranged for dinner out and a movie. Unfortunately, the movie we decided to see was “Batman Returns.”

We do listen to critics’ reviews, but we found ourselves wishing we had paid closer attention to what was said about this “hit.” It wasn’t long into the movie when we realized we’d been had. Gratuitous violence, bad language, sexual overtones and innuendoes and disjointed plots are acceptable for some films. But “Batman Returns”?

One of my primary complaints is that the new film has been marketed to small children and adolescents. Cereal, chips and even McDonald’s expose me and my children to this media hype almost daily. One can only wonder how anyone at Warner Bros. could find it appropriate to market this film--in which people are pushed off buildings, shot, burned, electrocuted and hit by speeding cars--to 5-year-olds. The PG-13 rating doesn’t protect my children from Warners’ massive marketing campaign, and nothing, absolutely nothing , in the ads even hints that the movie is not appropriate for children.

Why couldn’t Warners come up with a children’s version of this film? “Batman Returns” fails dismally as a family flick, and it fails as entertainment as well.

VIRGINIA S. NAEVE

Dana Point