Twenty years. That’s how long it’s been since a $100 million blockbuster about a woman fighting evil face cream hit theaters. Most people remember the Halle Berry Catwoman film as a punchline. A disaster. The movie that almost broke a career.
But honestly? There’s so much more to the story than just "it was bad."
We’re talking about a production where the script was basically written by committee. A movie where the lead actress had just won an Oscar and then, barely three years later, found herself clutching a Razzie for "Worst Actress." It was a wild ride.
Why the Halle Berry Catwoman Film Felt So Off
If you watch it today, the first thing you notice isn't the acting. It's the editing. It’s dizzying. Fast cuts every two seconds. The director, a French visual effects expert named Pitof, had a very specific, hyper-stylized vision. He wanted it to look like a music video.
The problem? You can’t build a superhero legacy on just "vibes."
Then there's the character. This wasn't Selina Kyle. There was no Gotham City. No Batman. Instead, we got Patience Phillips, a shy graphic designer working for a cosmetics company. She discovers a dark secret about a revolutionary skin cream called "Beau-line" and gets murdered for it. Then, a magical cat named Midnight breathes on her.
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Suddenly, she's eating tuna out of the can and hissing at dogs.
The Face Cream Fiasco
Halle Berry herself has admitted lately that the stakes felt... soft. Most superheroes save the planet from aliens or nukes. Patience was saving the world from a moisturizer that makes your skin fall off if you stop using it.
"I always thought the idea of Catwoman saving women from a face cream felt a bit soft," Berry told Entertainment Weekly during the film's 20th anniversary. She’s right. It’s hard to feel the "super" in superhero when the villain is a CEO played by Sharon Stone whose primary weapon is literally having "rock-hard" skin.
The Suit, the Stunts, and the Chaos
People love to hate on the costume. It was designed by Angus Strathie, and it was definitely a choice. It was basically shredded leather, crisscrossing straps, and open-toed heels.
Impractical? Absolutely.
Iconic? Sorta, but for the wrong reasons.
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Berry didn't just walk through the role, though. She worked for it. She spent months learning capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines dance and acrobatics. She actually did a lot of those movements herself. The "cat-like" behavior wasn't just CGI—she studied how cats moved to get the posture right.
But the script was a mess. It went through dozens of writers. At one point, studio executives were literally rearranging scenes on a whiteboard with index cards. John Brancato, one of the screenwriters, recalled that the studio was "punch-drunk" from too many drafts. They were exhausted before they even started filming.
The Razzie Acceptance: A Masterclass in Grace
The movie bombed. It made about $82 million worldwide against that $100 million budget. Critics tore it apart. But what happened next is why people still respect Halle Berry.
She actually showed up to the Razzies.
She walked onto that stage holding her Best Actress Oscar in one hand and the Worst Actress Razzie in the other. She thanked Warner Bros. for putting her in a "piece of sh*t, god-awful movie." It was hilarious. It was brave. She took the heat so the rest of the cast and crew didn't have to.
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"In order to give a really bad performance like I did, you need a lot of bad actors around you," she joked.
The Legacy Nobody Expected
Is the Halle Berry Catwoman film actually "good" now? No. Not really. But it has found a second life as a camp classic. There’s a generation of fans who grew up seeing a Black woman as a lead superhero and didn't care about the Rotten Tomatoes score.
It was a milestone, even if it was a rocky one. It was one of the first times a woman of color led a major comic book movie.
If you're planning to revisit this 2004 relic, here is how to actually enjoy it:
- Watch it as a "Period Piece": It is the ultimate 2004 time capsule. The fashion, the CGI, the "edgy" camera angles—it’s all there.
- Skip the Plot, Watch the Movement: Focus on Berry’s physical performance. Regardless of the dialogue, she really did nail the feline physicality.
- Embrace the Camp: Don't look for The Dark Knight. Look for a movie that is deeply, weirdly committed to its own absurdity.
The film serves as a massive lesson for Hollywood. You can't just throw a big name and a leather suit at a screen and expect a franchise. You need a script that actually has teeth.
If you want to understand the history of superhero cinema, you have to watch the failures. They're often more interesting than the safe, boring hits. Check out the behind-the-scenes interviews or the oral histories released recently; they reveal a production that was caught between wanting to be a "cool" music video and a serious blockbuster. It’s a fascinating mess that deserves a look, if only to see how far the genre has come since.