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| Graphic designer, Patience Philips works for a cosmetic company called Hedare Beauty. When she accidentally uncovers her employer's secret regarding their new anti-aging product, she finds that she is surplus to requirements... From human garbage to feline fatale with extraordinary powers Patience sets out to take revenge on those who didn't appreciate her designer talents.
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Here's what our members thought of this title. 5 stars = very good, 1 star = poor.
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Comicbook fans have never had it so good. Thanks largely to the incredible advances in special and visual effects that we’ve seen over the last few years, superhero movies are finally able to present the masked and powerful in a realistic light. No longer do we have to endure the low-tech horrors of the Seventies’ Spider-Man or the just-paint-a-big-bloke-green approach to TV’s Incredible Hulk. Happily, those days are over, though they did serve a purpose: to inspire a new generation of filmmakers, kids who grew up watching those tired old shows, to one day make up for their mistakes and shortcomings by writing and directing their own superhero movies. Films that respected and lived up to their comicbook origins, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2 and Guillermo Del Toro’s Blade 2 and Hellboy among them. It’s a golden age and there’s so much more to look forward to with Hollywood looking at reviving many of the classic comic book franchises. Superman, Batman, The Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, The Flash and even Green Lantern all have movies in different stages of development and production.
Although there are far fewer of them, it’s always nice to see a woman doing the superheroic thing. With Daredevil spin-off Elektra about to hit cinemas nationwide, Wonder Woman on the drawing board and a third unisex X-Men adventure in the works, it’s clear that Hollywood is now an equal-opportunities employer of caped crusaders. No one has benefited more from this enlightened attitude to girls in action movies than Bond girl Halle Berry, who besides playing weather witch ‘Storm’ in the first two X-Men films, also got to spring about and lick her paws as foxy avenger Catwoman.
Torn from the pages of Batman, this spin-off adventure re-invents and re-designs Catwoman beyond recognition. In the comics she was Selena Kyle, a gorgeous socialite and peerless cat burglar with a thing for Batman and, despite her criminal nature, a strong social conscience. Like Batman, there was nothing supernatural about her abilities. She was just extremely well trained, very strong, fast and agile. In Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, Catwoman’s origin took on a more fanciful tone, as Selena (Michelle Pfeiffer) is somehow transformed from timid wallflower into whip-wielding dominatrix as a result of being licked by cats. The same is more or less true in Catwoman, as Berry is restored from the brink of death by a bunch of magical cats. Suddenly she has their skills and senses, not earned but won just like Pfeiffer in the earlier movie. But unlike the Nineties Catwoman, this Noughties version has serious superpowers, bestowed upon her not only by kittens but also by huge Hollywood computers. Now she can run, leap, swing, kick and save the world with the best of them.
Batman’s out. Pfeiffer’s catsuit is out. And Selena’s been given her marching orders as well. Turns out Catwoman is now Patience Phillips (Berry), a shy sort who stumbles onto a wicked plot and is consequently roughed up by some henchmen. Then she’s revived by cats, learns to use her new superpowers, and, slipping into a revealing leather ensemble (with ears), sets out to sexily thwart evil cosmetics magnate Sharon Stone. The plan is to hook the women of the world on an addictive and harmful rejuvenating lotion, and that’s not the only girly thing about this movie. In a bid to make a female-friendly superhero movie, French director Pitof not only sets the movie within the make-up industry, but throws in a lot of dating action as well. The twist is the guy who fancies Patience (Benjamin Bratt) is also the cop after Catwoman. Now how’s she going to get out of that?
It’s all very silly of course, but that’s part of its charm. "For you, Patience, it’s game over!", shrieks Stone. "It’s overtime!", says Berry defiantly. There’s lots of action too, running over rooftops and slamming into bad guys. And Berry looks amazing. We’d definitely leave her out a saucer of milk...
CATWOMAN, Characters, Names and Related Indicia are Trademarks of and DC Comics. © 2004 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
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