Pitof’s Catwoman, starring Halle Berry, isn’t fondly remembered – and rightfully so. But it isn’t the worst superhero movie by a long shot.
Released in July 2004, Pitof’s Catwoman meowed its way into theaters, leaving the unmistakable stench of used cat litter around the globe. The superhero movie wasn’t well received by fans and critics alike, though star Halle Berry proved to be a good sport as she accepted her Razzie Award for Worst Actress in person and slammed the film for almost killing her career.
While it’s difficult to call Catwoman a good film, time allows for retrospection and to critically analyze it with a fresh set of eyes and an open heart. Yes, it’s still a stinker, but it’s far from the worst superhero movie of all time – which says a whole lot more about what came before and after.
Without question, one of the standout performances in 1992’s Batman Returns comes from Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. As the ending of the film shows, the character remains alive and well – even if she isn’t with Bruce Wayne anymore. Warner Bros. saw the potential to spin off Catwoman into her own solo movie, with Tim Burton and Pfeiffer set to return and make more magic.
In 2023, screenwriter Daniel Waters opened up about Burton’s plan for the movie at the time, as well as his own. “He wanted to do an $18 million black and white movie, like the original Cat People, of Selina just lowkey living in a small town,” Waters said (via IndieWire). “And I wanted to make a Batman movie where the metaphor was about Batman. So I had her move to a Los Angeles version of Gotham City, and it’s run by three a**hole superheroes. It was The Boys before The Boys. But he got exhausted reading my script.”
There was a bigger problem than creative differences between Burton and Waters, though. Warner Bros. turned the Batman franchise into a kid-friendly and merchandise-heavy machine with 1995’s Batman Forever. No way it was going to greenlight a risky project that appealed to adults more than kids. To further complicate matters, another twist in the tale happened in 1997: Batman & Robin. The oh-so-sugary-it’s-practically-diabetes film almost single handedly destroyed the comic book movie genre in its entirety, and no one wanted to see or touch anything involving capes and cowls for a while thereafter.
As the Catwoman project took a long catnap on the studio lot, Burton and Pfeiffer departed the production. However, the success of superhero films like Blade and X-Men twisted Warner Bros.’ arm to try again. The studio enlisted the talents of Ashley Judd to take on the lead role in 2001; however, she also couldn’t wait around forever and moved on from the movie. Other names like Nicole Kidman were mentioned for the part, too, before Halle Berry signed on the dotted line and Catwoman actually entered production.
Catwoman director Pitof spoke to Wizard (via SuperHeroHype) about how he avoided the comics intentionally when creating the movie. “I checked out some to see how Catwoman is treated in the comics, to make sure that our Catwoman was in the same vein,” Pitof said. “But I didn’t want to be too influenced by the comic book, because the whole point of the movie is to be first a movie, and to be different.” To be fair, Tim Burton did the same thing in Batman Returns, since the way in which Selina Kyle becomes Catwoman in the film isn’t the same as in the comics, where she’s often presented as a powerless but acrobatic and cunning catburglar.
However, Pitof and his collaborators changed the entire fabric of the character’s being. For one, it’s graphic designer Patience Phillips who becomes Catwoman here – not Selina Kyle. She drowns, but a magical kitty revives and grants her powers because cats are benevolent creatures that would never claw and play with dead things. Then, the costume… Yes, this is about a cat, but woof. Looking like the combination of a bondage outfit and a bargain store Halloween costume, it fails to pay homage to any version of the character.
Aesthetical choices aside, the story doesn’t aid the cause either. Instead of battling mob bosses or psychopathic clowns, Catwoman squares off against the head of a cosmetics company, Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), who lies about the effects (and side effects) of products. (Um, isn’t that every cosmetics company?) Sure, it’s something that needs to be stopped and fought against in society, but here’s this person who receives ancient cat powers and the first villain she fights is someone who attends Anna Wintour’s Christmas parties. The stakes just don’t seem that high for a comic book movie.
Halle Berry shares the same sentiment. In 2021, while on the press tour for Bruised, Berry brought up Catwoman and how it’s one of the movies from her past that she would have loved to direct with her experience now. Discussing what she would do differently, she told Jake’s Takes: “I would have Catwoman saving the world like most male superheroes do, and not just saving women from having their faces cracking off. I would make the stakes a lot higher, and I think make it more inclusive of both men and women.”
Catwoman firmly established itself as a meme-worthy movie in pop culture. After all, who can ever forget that cut-intensive basketball scene to the tune of Mis-Teeq’s “Scandalous”? That said, it receives a lot more backlash due to it being a high-profile film and featuring Oscar winner Halle Berry in her most terrible role, but there are worse superhero films before and after Catwoman.
Look at 1997’s Steel, starring Shaquille O’Neal as John Henry Irons, aka Steel. If we’re talking about bad costumes, Steel’s helmet proves to be the goofiest of them all, looking as if the costume designer walked off set midway through the production due to some or another dispute. Heck, even 2015’s Fantastic Four boasts a few laugh-out-loud moments as the actors’ wigs change from scene to scene and the movie portrays Doctor Doom as a bitter internet troll.
More recently, Jared Leto went completely method and sucked the life out of the audience’s interest for 2022’s Morbius. That’s not even the worst of it, though, as 2024’s Madame Web promised a web that connects us all, but connects nothing but confusion as it’s simply another one of Sony’s superhero movies to make use of the Spider-Man license and create movies about D- or E-list characters.
Needless to say, these superhero movies make Catwoman look like Casablanca in comparison. All things considered, it’s unlikely that anyone will be rallying for Pitof’s film to be mentioned in the same breath as films like Logan or The Dark Knight, but how can anyone not get a chuckle out of Patience Phillips rolling her face in catnip or her cheesy lines? Honestly, it’s worth the price of renting the movie alone. In fact, that sounds like “a purrfect idea” to do right now in celebration of the film’s 20th anniversary.
