When you hear the name “Catwoman,” you probably think of a whip-smart antihero, master thief, and Gotham’s most compelling femme fatale—Selina Kyle. But in 2004, audiences were treated to something... different. Enter Halle Berry in Catwoman, a film that’s now as infamous for its baffling creative choices as it is for wasting the talents of an Academy Award-winning actress.
The casting of Berry wasn’t just questionable—it was catastrophic. While she looked the part in terms of costuming (we’ll give them that), the rest of the package—from performance to portrayal—left fans and critics alike wondering: Who is this character supposed to be? Because she sure isn’t Catwoman.
Let’s break it down: the performance, the portrayal, and where exactly it all clawed its way off the rails.
Performance: Scratching the Surface
Halle Berry is a great actress. She’s got the Oscar to prove it. But in Catwoman, she’s trapped in a script that doesn’t give her anything to work with—aside from terrible dialogue, CGI parkour, and a painfully forced cat persona.
Berry’s performance is all surface-level sass with none of the complexity you’d expect from a morally grey character like Catwoman. She plays Patience Phillips, a character so forgettable that even Batman wouldn't bother chasing her. There’s no edge, no nuance, and definitely no seductive charm. The line delivery is flat, the physicality is awkward, and any attempts at emotional depth are buried beneath cat puns and cringe.
You can tell Berry is trying to sell it—she commits—but it’s hard to breathe life into a character that feels more like a marketing pitch than an actual person.
Portrayal: This Ain’t Selina Kyle
Let’s get one thing straight: this character is not Selina Kyle. In fact, this Catwoman doesn’t even exist in DC Comics canon. The film invents a new identity—Patience Phillips—a shy, awkward graphic designer who stumbles into a cat-themed resurrection storyline and suddenly becomes a leather-clad vigilante with powers more in line with Cheetah than Catwoman.
Selina Kyle is cunning, confident, and complicated. She walks the line between villain and vigilante with finesse, often challenging Batman both morally and romantically. Patience Phillips is none of these things. She's awkward, unsure, and her transformation into “Catwoman” feels more like a budget magical girl origin story than the birth of a complex antihero.
Even the mythology is off. Egyptian cat gods? Magic resurrection dust? Cat powers? It’s like the writers skimmed a Wikipedia article on cats and decided to improvise the rest.
This isn't reinvention. It's abandonment. What we got was a hollow avatar in a sexy outfit, not the fully realized character fans deserved.
The Verdict: A Missed Opportunity
Halle Berry’s Catwoman had the potential to do something bold with a female-led superhero movie—but it completely misunderstood the assignment. The casting, though well-intentioned, was wasted on a character that wasn’t worth creating in the first place. Berry wasn’t Catwoman because the film never gave her a real Catwoman to be.
Yes, the costume was eye-catching. But that’s all it was: costume. No claws. No bite. No Selina Kyle.
Thankfully, the cinematic universe moved on, giving us far stronger portrayals of Catwoman in the years that followed. But Catwoman (2004) remains a case study in what happens when style tries (and fails) to substitute substance.
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