Catwoman (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Train Featurette-The Many Faces Of Catwoman Featurette-Making Of Additional Footage-Additional Scenes Theatrical Trailer DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	99:57
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (37:25)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Pitof
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Halle Berry Sharon Stone Benjamin Bratt Lambert Wilson Frances Conroy Alex Borstein
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Klaus Badelt

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

dogs come when they're called
cats take a message and get back to you

    I am owned by four fine-furred female felines. Say hello, girls. Oh, sorry to bother you. Much of the time my girls act like exquisite living sculpture, moving gracefully from a purrfect pose to serene sleeping position. They can glide along a narrow shelf without disturbing a single thing (or dislodge everything in contempt at a flat-out run). No time spent watching them is wasted. Every so often I marvel at how superbly adapted the cat shape is as a predator (which is why my girls are indoor cats...). And yet a cat is soft and warm, and a purring cat is a great comfort. This duality of lethal and lovable is probably a major part of the cat's attraction, and this film plays on that

dogs have owners
cats have staff

    Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is a graphic artist, working for a major cosmetics company: Hedare Beauty, which is about to release a new line in face cream. This new face cream is supposed to reverse the signs of aging. One day she's working late, and has to take new art over to the factory because she's missed the messenger. There she happens to overhear a conversation that reveals nasty secrets about the new product. She's killed because of it.

    Patience is returned to life by a cat, but she is not the same woman. She has the reflexes, eye-sight, and agility of a cat, and she has much of the attitude as well. She is motivated to investigate her own death...

cats were once worshipped as gods
they have never forgotten

    This film goes all out on the cat motif. Catwoman is not a criminal who simply dresses like a cat (as in many previous incarnations). Indeed, this Catwoman is not exactly a criminal (not exactly...). There are elements of Spiderman in this: she is branded a criminal in the media, even though she isn't. This Catwoman has powers previous ones didn't: she has telescopic sight, she always lands on her feet, she can run, jump, even bounce off walls; and when she's interrogating one of the men involved in her death, she's definitely playing cat-and-mouse with him.

    In case you are wondering, Batman does not appear in this film. Indeed, the link to Batman is tenuous — it's really only the name "Catwoman". Even the character's alter-ego, Patience Philips, is different: the original Catwoman's alter-ego was Selina Kyle. Perhaps it might be best to think of this as completely unconnected — just enjoy the story in itself.

way down deep we are all motivated by primal urges
cats have the courage to live by theirs

    All up, I rather enjoyed this film (one favourite moment is Catwoman's way of dealing with noisy neighbours), even though its plot is, umm, a tad deficient. It's a decent action film, with some neat (and novel) fight scenes. Most importantly, this is a very sensual Catwoman, and rather fun to watch...

Video

    This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, with 16x9 enhancement. The original aspect ratio is variously reported as 2.35:1 and 2.40:1; either way, this will do nicely.

    The image is excellent (as you'd hope for so recent a film): it is sharp and clear throughout. Shadow detail is generally good: you can see the creases in the black leather. Film grain is never a problem. There's no low level noise.

    Colour comes across well. There is some coloured lighting, lending a cast to scenes, on occasions (such as the police interrogation scene) — this is clearly deliberate, and it works well. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts. There is no aliasing of any significance, and no moiré. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are subtitles and captions in English, but no other languages. I watched the English captions. They are well-timed, rather accurate, and easy to read.

    The disc is single-sided, dual layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change is just noticeable at 37:25, but it's not disruptive to viewing.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is only provided in English, in Dolby Digital 5.1, at 384kbps. This surprises me, because it's a very good soundtrack, and I'd have expected it to be 448kbps.

    The dialogue is easily comprehensible, never confused in the music or sound effects. Audio sync is fine.

    The music is well integrated into the action, and a major reason to enjoy the film. Klaus Badelt's score is not subtle, but it does an excellent job of working with the fight scenes, as well as with the subtler moments.

    The surrounds get plenty of action, with plenty of directional sound. The subwoofer gets a lot to do — the jewellery store scene will let you find how hard your sub can work — about the only flaw one might point to is possibly a little too much sub. This is a good example of a modern 5.1 soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu, after an intro, is animated with music. Even with that it is simple to use.

Featurette: The Many Faces of Catwoman (29:44)

    This featurette, introduced by Eartha Kitt, goes through the history of Catwoman, and the various actresses who have portrayed her. Amusingly, this featurette makes it quite clear how much distance there is between the other Catwomen and this one.

    The featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of roughly 1.66:1, but is not 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette: Behind the Scenes (13:03)

    This shorter piece is a more conventional making-of piece. It uses quite a few clips that appear in the other featurette, so there's more than a little overlap.

    The featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of roughly 1.66:1, but is not 16x9 enhanced.

Additional Scenes (6:25)

    This is a sequence of pieces better described as "deleted and extended scenes". There are five scenes here, presented one after another. There are no captions, descriptions, introductions, or commentary. The last of these scenes is an alternative ending  — I am glad they did not use this one.

    These scenes are not 16x9 enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer (0:56)

    A normal trailer  — nothing special about it.

DVD-ROM

    Putting this disc into a DVD-ROM drive is supposed to unlock some web links — Windows only, though; these features do not work on a Mac. It uses the Interactual player.

    The Region 1 version of this disc will be released in January 2005. It sounds like it will be generally similar, with the Many Faces of Catwoman featurette, alternate ending, and so on. Region 1 will be getting two versions: Full Frame and Widescreen. I don't mind missing the Full Frame version.

    It seems unlikely that the Region 1 could have a better transfer, so I think you can buy the Region 4 disc with confidence.

    A decent action movie, given a very good presentation on DVD.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are quite good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall