There have been many movies made about superheroes, especially in the last several years. For the most part, the movies have focused on male superheroes, with the female characters taking a backseat even though there are some very strong female superhero characters in different comics. There have only been a few movies made that were about female superheroes and for the most part, those movies have not been that good. My hopes for a good female superhero movie, specifically featuring Wonder Woman, were dashed when Joss Whedon pulled out of the project. Things have not gone well for female superhero movies and I’m not holding my breath for that to change anytime soon. 2004's Catwoman certainly didn’t do anything to change that.
Patience Phillips was a shy woman who tended to let others walk all over her. She met Detective Tom Lone when she risked her life to rescue a cat outside her apartment. He believed that she was trying to kill herself. They did eventually start a relationship. Patience worked for a cosmetic company run by George and Laurel Hedare designing ads. Laurel tried to hide it but she was not pleased that George decided to hire a younger woman to replace her as the model for the company. Patience was working late on a project one night when she over heard something about a new product that she wasn’t supposed to hear. She was seen and killed when she couldn’t get away.
The cat that Patience had tried to save found her and somehow brought her back to life. Patience couldn’t remember what had happened and she started to act differently. She became stronger and her reflexes and senses were greatly improved. She started acting and moving like a cat as well. Patience started to go out nights dressed in a revealing, tight leather outfit to deal with criminals. The police, including Tom, were trying to catch her because she did break some laws on her nightly jaunts. Patience managed to discover more about what was going on with the cosmetics company and she sat out to expose them while dodging the police.
Since I tend to like movies featuring superheroes, I wanted to see Catwoman even after I’d read some bad things about it. I figured it couldn’t be that bad and I would still be able to enjoy the movie. I was wrong. The movie was one giant mess that never should have been made. I remember hearing that Ashley Judd had been offered the part before Halle Berry and she either turned it down or pulled out of the project. Judd made a very good decision. I originally rented the DVD and I had trouble staying interested in the movie when I watched it. I recently watched it again on television only because I had been thinking I would do that so I could review it. I’ve been on a bit of a superhero movie binge and seem to feel the need to review every one of these movies I’ve seen.
I think the biggest problem the movie had was that it had absolutely no connection to the world of Batman. Even before I knew much about Batman, I knew that Catwoman was connected to him. Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne have had a very complex relationship, partially because they were often on opposing sides. I thought that a movie about Selina/Catwoman could be very interesting. Unfortunately, some idiot made the decision not to make the movie about Selina. Instead it was about a woman named Patience that became one in a long line of catwomen after a cat brought her back to life. That was explained through some supernatural type of things with a connection to Egypt that was somewhat interesting. Really the only thing that was the same with Selina and Patience was that they were both brought back to life by cats and they developed new abilities because of that. Patience was not Catwoman in any way and the movie should not have that title. I really don’t understand how DC Comics allowed this disaster to be made and be titled after one of their popular characters.
The plot for Catwoman was stupid with how most of it was revolving around what was wrong with the new product from the cosmetic company that Patience worked for. It just wasn’t that interesting and I didn’t care about it. There was a bit of a subplot added in regarding Laurel being upset about being replaced as the model for the company. That did show that there were some problems between George and Laurel, but it didn’t seem that important or interesting to me. Once Patience was dressing up like Catwoman, she did get into a few fights that added a small amount of action and violence to the movie. The violence wasn’t that graphic, so I don’t think the movie would be too violent for anyone.
Patience was shown running around the city at night more than once since that is usually when she would go out as Catwoman. In one scene, she was riding a motorcycle the first night she went out after being brought back to life. She was racing through the streets like a madwoman, and some weird looking effects were used in the backgrounds. I’m guessing that was done as a way to show how fast she was driving, but it just looked stupid. During some scenes, Patience was even shown climbing up the sides of buildings or sort of bouncing from one wall to another. It was very obvious that special effects were used for those sequences. There was one scene later in the movie that involved Patience jumping out of a window and eventually landing on the ground. The effects were very obvious and done very badly. It was very easy to tell that it was a CGI Patience instead of the real woman and it just looked bad.
Patience and Tom began a relationship shortly after they met without really knowing much about each other. Tom still pursued her even though he had some suspicions because of a few things. There was a decent amount of sexual tension between them even though there really wasn’t much to the relationship. It didn’t add anything to the movie, so I’m not sure why it was included. There really weren’t any sex scenes in the movie thought it was made clear that they had sex.
Patience started off being very shy and timid and then she changed completely after she became a catwoman. Halle Berry did all right for the most part in the role, though she did seem to get a bit overboard with the character at times. She’s been much better in other movies like Die Another Day and Gothika. She was even better in the X-Men movies in a much smaller part despite the criticism she received for her acting in those movies. Benjamin Bratt ended up with not that much to do in the movie since Tom really wasn’t that important of a character even though he was involved with Patience. I think Bratt did much better in Miss Congeniality.
George only turned up in a couple of scenes, so he was a very flat character. He didn’t seem that likable from the few scenes he was in. Lambert Wilson was fine, though nothing special in the part. Laurel was in a bit more of the movie than her husband was. She wasn’t developed any more than he was. Basically the only thing that was really known about her was that she was mad about being replaced as the model for the company. She wasn’t a nice woman. Sharon Stone did a lot of over acting in many of her scenes. I actually think she was better in Basic Instinct and Basic Instinct 2. Alex Borstein turned up in a few scenes as Patience’s friend Sally.
Main Cast
Halle Berry - Patience Phillips/Catwoman Alex Borstein - Sally Benjamin Bratt - Tom Lone Sharon Stone - Laurel Hedare Lambert Wilson - George Hedare
Pitof - Director
Catwoman was released on DVD with a full screen and a widescreen version. I can’t remember which one I rented. I don’t remember what kind of special features there were on the disc because I wasn’t interested enough to check them out.
Catwoman turned out to be a horrible movie that had nothing to do with the character of Catwoman from the Batman world. It was a huge disappointment and should be avoided.
Patience Philips is dead -- and more alive then ever. Murdered after she learns the secret behind a cosmetic firm s anti-aging cream, she s revived an...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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