Catwoman (2004) Review:

It is confusing to why any distributor would want to release a film explaining the background of a less noted character. Catwoman is a very intriguing character but as the saying goes, some mysteries are better left unsolved. It's good to leave the audience questioning the background of certain characters, otherwise the mind isn't allowed to explore and create the reasons why that character is the way they are.

I think we can all see why this movie was supposed to
grab people's attention,...specifically 14 year-old boys

This version of Catwoman tells the story of down on her luck artist Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) who ends up learning a dark secret behind the company that she works for. Once she discovers the truth she's transformed into a human with super cat-like reflexes by a bazillion year old tabby called Midnight. And the fact that Phillips is now called herself "Catwoman" is not a new thing. According to the script, there have been woman picked by Midnight to become this Catwoman in the past. So in a sense, the term Catwoman has now been generalized. So now it's just a term for those specific ones chosen by Midnight. It's a neat theory, but this should've not been penned into the actual script that was to be approved.

The whole concept of Catwoman was about her strong interest in the way of the feline. To think that she was more inclined to just acting like a cat than having super skills like a cat was more acceptable. Then there's the subplot of Tom Lone, a police officer, who dresses nothing like one. Lone is played by Benjamin Bratt who ends up getting wound up in the usual superhero cliche: the superhero doesn't tell the lover who they really are until the lover finds out for himself or herself.

Benjamin Bratt along side Halle Berry

Plus, as any comic book fan would know, although Catwoman loves to flirt with men, she never settles down. She's a solitary worker. And for almost the whole time during this movie, Phillips is trying to settle down with Lone. Sharon Stone also plays in here, and like most films, she's a baddie. Still seductive, and still dangerous and that's good. Which now leads to the few positives in this bad apple.

Halle Berry as Catwoman was a fair choice. Berry can be alluring and quite lethal at the same time so that's a plus. The way she moves is also attractive and her skills are impressive even if there were times where I knew I was completely looking at CGI on the screen. That frustrated me, how could a production with such a high budget make a film with such obvious computer renderings? We're better than that people! Same goes for the cats too; supposedly 43 cats were trained for this film. I only saw one real one and that was the cat who played Midnight and even then, there were times where it looked completely fake. What's the deal?!

However, the action scenes were nice. They're not amazing or spectacular but they were entertaining none the less. The flexibility of Catwoman was always cool to watch but that's about it. The dialog was too puny for me. There were too many lines that were said one right after the next that had a cat pun in the sentence. Enough! This isn't a contest, screenwriters! Not even the music by Klaus Badelt helped and he's not a bad composer either! His score to K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) was very moving but it feels like here, he got lazy. Hey Badelt, wake up!

Halle Berry and Sharon Stone give passable performances as their characters but nothing else is really noteworthy. Catwoman tries to entertain but it misses with each swipe it takes.

Points Earned --> 5:10