Catwoman (film)

Catwoman
Directed by	Pitof
Written by	Comic Book: Bob Kane Story: Theresa Rebeck John Brancato Michael Ferris Screenplay: John Brancato Michael Ferris John Rogers
Produced by	Denise Di Novi Edward McDonnell
Starring	Halle Berry Benjamin Bratt Sharon Stone
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Edited by	Sylvie Landra
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Distributed by	Warner Bros. ,Village Roadshow Pictures
Release dates	July 23, 2004
Running time	104 min.
Language	English
Budget	$100,000,000
Box office	$82,102,379

Catwoman is a 2004 superhero film directed by Pitof and released by Warner Brothers & Village Roadshow Pictures on July 23, 2004. It is loosely based and inspired by the DC Comics character Catwoman, who is traditionally a supervillain and love interest of the superhero Batman. Initially there was debate about the writing credits, but the Writers Guild of America ultimately awarded screenplay credit to John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, and John Rogers, and story credit to Theresa Rebeck, Brancato, and Ferris.

The film stars Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy, and Alex Borstein. It was poorly received by critics and moviegoers (see List of films considered the worst).

Plot

Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a shy, timid artist working for a cosmetics company. One morning, she sees a cat outside her window. Thinking it is stuck, she climbs out onto a ledge and nearly falls. A detective named Tom Lone, spots her and thinks she is attempting suicide, and rescues her. After believing her story the two gradually form a relationship.

While delivering a new design to her boss, Patience overhears a plot to sell defective beauty products that initially make human skin look younger and prettier; if the product is not used over a long period of time, however, the skin begins to decay. Unfortunately she is spotted at the scene and attempts to flee into a set of water conduits. The pipes are flooded by her pursuers, and she drowns.

After being murdered, she is brought back to life by the temple cat she saw earlier, because the cat was moved by the fact that she risked her own life for it. When she wakes up, she is transformed into Catwoman, a warrior with the force of a cat, who prowls the night in search of justice. Her behavior becomes cat-like, and she gains heightened reflexes, senses, and physical power.

Determined to discover why she was murdered (having forgotten the events that occurred the night before), Patience re-learns about the beauty product and when she goes to the factory where the product is made, she finds a scientist who protested against the product's release murdered. Before she can investigate further, however, the night guard spots her and sounds the alarm. Patience quickly flees the factory. She then informs her boss's wife, Laurel Hedare, about the plan and asks her to keep an eye out for anything unusual.

Catwoman then heads to the opera house where her boss, George, is attending a play with another woman. She confronts him about the product, but he doesn't know about its toxic after-effects. The police arrive and chase Catwoman, who is able to escape by cutting off the power.

Patience and Lone then go out on a date at a sushi restaurant, where they talk about Catwoman. When they leave, they go to Patience's home where Lone finds one of Catwoman's claw nails.

Later, Laurel contacts Catwoman, and tricks her into entering a room with Patience's brutally murdered boss lying on the floor. Laurel then calls the police after tossing a gun into Catwoman's hand. As she flees the house, Catwoman realizes that Laurel was the one who insisted on the product's release and murdered the scientist who tried to stop it.

Catwoman's lip prints on Lone's cheek matched up with those of Patience from a glass cup, and she was taken into custody by Lone. That night she was able to escape from her jail cell by squeezing through the bars like a cat.

Meanwhile, Lone goes to Laurel, while she holds a press conference for the beauty product and a tribute to George. They go to her office and talk, and during their conversation, Laurel lets slip that she was the murderer of the scientist and her husband. But, before Lone can arrest her, she pulls a gun and shoots him in the arm. Catwoman then arrives, and rescues Lone just as Laurel is about to finish him off. After taking out her henchmen, Catwoman confronts Laurel, and they fight, though Laurel's face is now like "living marble" from using the product for so long. During the fight, Catwoman slashes her face and causes it to rip. As Catwoman finishes scratching her face, Laurel accidentally falls off the broken glass window she tried to push Catwoman out of. Catwoman attempts to save her as she's hanging on, but Laurel accidentally slips and falls to her death. Detective Lone comes and saw what happened. He then reassures Patience that she will not be found guilty for the murders.

At the end of the movie Patience sends an art piece of hers and a thank you note to the woman who owns the cat that revived her. This woman also helped her remember her death and told Patience the powers her cat gave to her and her new freedom. Patience also sends a letter to Detective Lone, saying good bye and thank you and walks off into the night, happy with her new powers and independence.

Cast

Actor	Role
Halle Berry	Patience Phillips / Catwoman
Benjamin Bratt	Tom Lone
Sharon Stone	Laurel Hedare
Lambert Wilson	George Hedare
Frances Conroy	Ophelia Powers / Catlady
Alex Borstein	Sally
Michael Massee	Armando
Byron Mann	Wesley
Kim Smith	Drina
Peter Wingfield	Dr. Ivan Slavicky
Berend McKenzie	Lance

Response

Before the film was released, perplexities were raised by the notion that the protagonist would be a woman with feline superpowers, whereas in most adaptations Catwoman is a highly trained but normal woman fond of cat-themed theatrics, with no superhuman powers. The debate subsided when it was learned that the character played by Berry would not be Selina Kyle, the original Catwoman from the comics, but an entirely new one, named Patience Phillips. Perplexity remained over the decision to omit the Selina Kyle character and depart so significantly from the source material however. Other criticisms included the similarities between the new character's origins and that of another comic book character, The Crow (also adapted into a film version).

Catwoman was poorly received, both critically and at the box office. The film appeared on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films. He criticized the filmmakers for giving little thought to providing Berry "with a strong character, story, supporting characters or action sequences.", but his primary criticism came from the failure of the film to give the audience a sense of what her character experienced as she was transformed into Catwoman. Film critic Bill Muller of the Arizona Republic suggested that maybe Berry should give back her 2002 Acadamy Award as a penalty.

This film received seven Golden Raspberry nominations in 2005. It won in the categories of Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay. Halle Berry accepted the award for Worst Actress personally, apologizing for the film, and speaking frankly in interviews about her views regarding problems with the film.

Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks ran a series of comic strips in which Riley is punished by being forced to watch Catwoman. He subsequently campaigns to have being forced to watch Catwoman considered to be a form of child abuse.

MSN Movies ranks Catwoman as the third worst superhero movie to date, behind Batman & Robin .[1]

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 10% freshness rate, based on 168 reviews. It is also on the worst 100 reviews ever, along with a scatography rating of 99.7%.

Despite poor box office earnings and reviews, its US DVD rental gross during its stay on the weekly top 50 chart was $35 million [2].

See also

• Catwoman (video game)

External links

• Official site
• Catwoman at IMDb
• Catwoman at Box Office Mojo