Critics get their claws out for Catwoman

Halle Berry’s latest movie Catwoman received a mauling by the critics today on the eve of its release in the United States.

Oscar-winner Berry was branded a “third-rate dominatrix”, the special effects “sloppy, hyperactive” and the script “a pedestrian piece of committee work”.

The New York Times scowls: “Catwoman is a howlingly silly, moderately diverting exercise in high, pointless style.”

Berry plays the role of Patience Philips, who works for a big cosmetics company run by George Hedare (Lambert Wilson) and his wife, Laurel (Sharon Stone).

The Hedares have Philips killed when she learns that a beauty cream the company is developing can cause disfigurements.

She is drowned after being flushed into a river with toxic waste. But after being revived by a mysterious cat, giving her feline powers, she seeks her revenge.

Critics were unimpressed with the unlikely plot.

The New York Post said Catwoman “even with Halle Berry cavorting like a third-rate dominatrix – is about as sexy as a hairball”.

It said the action sequences “have been severely edited in an unsuccessful attempt to disguise the fact that the computer-generated version of Catwoman looks nearly as phoney as the real thing”.

“Berry laps up cream, chows down tins of tuna, sniffs at catnip, hisses at dogs and wields a whip.

"The overall effect suggests less female empowerment than an Oscar winner who would endure almost any humiliation for a $12.5m (€10.2m) pay cheque.”

The New York Times was no kinder to the stars or the French director, who goes by the name Pitof.

“Pitof’s approach to storytelling is casual. He yawns and stretches over the script, which is a pedestrian piece of committee work in any case.”

The newspaper even went as far as to call the movie an insult to cats, but added: “The cats of the world will get over this insult. Most likely by sleeping through it.”

Catwoman opens in Ireland on August 13.