Catwoman (2004)

Catwoman is a 2004 American superhero film loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Directed by Pitof and written by John Rogers, John Brancato and Michael Ferris with music by Klaus Badelt, the film stars Halle Berry in the title role, Benjamin Bratt, Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy, Alex Borstein and Sharon Stone. The film centers on Patience Phillips, a meek designer who discovers a dark conspiracy within the cosmetics company she works for that involves a dangerous product which could cause widespread health problems. After being discovered and murdered by the conspirators, she is revived by Egyptian cats that grant her with superhuman cat-like abilities allowing her to become the crime-fighting superhero Catwoman, while also falling in love with a police detective who pursues her.

Produced by Village Roadshow Pictures and Denise Di Novi's Di Novi Pictures, Catwoman was released theatrically on July 23, 2004 by Warner Bros. Pictures and was a critical and commercial failure, grossing $82 million against a budget of $100 million. The film received seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations and won in the categories of Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay; many critics consider it to be one of the worst films of all time.

Artist and graphics designer Patience Phillips is a meek people-pleaser whose main support is her best friend Sally. She works for a cosmetics company called Hedare Beauty which is ready to ship a new skin cream called Beau-line that is able to reverse the effects of aging. However, when Patience visits the R&D laboratory facility to deliver a redone ad design, she overhears a discussion between the scientist Dr. Ivan Slavicky and Laurel Hedare, the wife of company-owner George Hedare, about the dangerous side effects from continued use of the product. Laurel's guards discover Patience and are ordered to dispose of her. Patience tries to escape using a conduit pipe, but the minions have it sealed and flush her out of it, drowning her. Washed up on shore, Patience is mysteriously revived by an Egyptian Mau cat who belches in her mouth; which had appeared at her apartment earlier; from that moment on, she develops cat-like abilities.

From Mau's owner eccentric researcher Ophelia Powers, Patience learns that Egyptian Mau cats serve as messengers of the goddess Bast. Patience realizes that she is now a "catwoman," reborn with abilities that are both a blessing and a curse. Disguised as a mysterious vigilante named Catwoman to hide her identity, Patience, under cover of darkness, searches for answers as to who killed her and why. Eventually, her search (which includes finding Slavicky's body, and later being accused of his murder) leads her to Laurel. She asks Laurel to keep an eye on George, to which Laurel agrees. However, when Patience confronts George (who is attending an opera with another woman) as Catwoman, he reveals he knows nothing about the side effects. The police, led by Patience's love interest Detective Tom Lone, arrive and Catwoman escapes. Later on, Laurel murders her husband for his infidelity and admits to having Dr. Slavicky killed because he wanted to cancel the product's release. She contacts Catwoman and frames her for the murder. Catwoman is then taken into custody by Tom, but not before Laurel reveals the side-effects of the product: discontinuing its use makes the skin disintegrate, while continuing its use makes the skin as hard as marble. She also plans to release Beau-line to the public the following day.

Patience slips out of her cell and confronts Laurel in her office, rescuing Tom who came to question Laurel after second thoughts about Patience's guilt in the process and revealing that Laurel is the one responsible for her death. During the fight, she scratches Laurel's face multiple times, causing Laurel to fall out of a window and grab onto a pipe. Laurel sees her face in a window's reflection and horrified by her skin's rapid disintegration (as a result of the scratches and her own use of Beau-line for years), fails to grab hold of Patience's outstretched arm and falls to her death. Though Patience is cleared of any charges made against her regarding the deaths of Dr. Slavicky and the Hedares, she decides to end things with Tom by choosing to continue living outside the law and enjoying her newfound freedom as the mysterious Catwoman.