By: Johnny Wellens
Pouncing straight off the pages of DC is comic book history’s most popular and sexy burglar. Catwoman revolutionized the game by playing both a foil and a love interest to DC’s most overrated character, Batman.
Through the years Catwoman developed into a fierce standalone figure with a rich and vibrant history. For eons fans have clamored for a solo Catwoman film and when Warner Bros. finally announced its production the community’s expectations were understandably high. I can finally announce, unequivocally, that Catwoman lives up to its hype and even exceeds our wildest expectations.
Instead of piggy backing on and slaving themselves to the character’s already established and accepted history, the filmmakers wisely re-wrote nearly every element of the character. What we ended up with was a character who had new life breathed into her, maintaining no relation to the original and the film was all the better for it.
The plot focuses on the completely original character of Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) who, after being left for dead, is magically revived with catlike abilities and thirst for vengeance. Patience develops a fashionably modest costume equipped with sleek latex and razor-sharp cat claws that are pawsitively deadly. Patience learns from one of the feline’s owners that something about stuff lead to cats being magic. This is a trait that is sorely missing from the dull comic version of this character.
Patience uses her newfound powers to uncover the mystery of her murder while simultaneously fighting the advances of Detective Tom Lone, played by teenage heartthrob Benjamin Bratt. The scenes involving Patience and Tom are pure magic and their chemistry is apparent in every inter-cat-tion. In one particularly memorable moment Patience hilariously schools Tom in a game of basketball! Without getting too deep into spoilers, their touching final moment in the film will have audiences reaching for a box of tissues.
Fantastic editing, snappy dialogue and a thrilling final battle make Catwoman a must-see for any superhero fan!