Meet your new Catwoman

The latest on The Dark Knight Rises names Anne Hathaway to play Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman.

Hathaway certainly has the acting chops to hold her own in the Nolan trilogy, which has seen stellar performances from everyone except maybe Christian Bale. (Sorry, man, but you gotta ditch that growly thing you do when you're in the Batsuit. It just sounds silly. You can change your voice without sounding like you need a thump on the back. Love, CultureGeek.)

But I feel even better when I see who else they were considering. Keira Knightley, Jessica Biel, Naomi Watts.... Not that I have anything against these ladies' acting abilities, but they have one thing in common: I could break them over my knee. They're sticks. Particularly Knightley, who was perfectly healthy in appearance for the first Pirates movie, but ever since then her collarbones make me wince and I want to give the poor woman a sandwich.

Catwoman is the original cat burglar. Both the original comic Catwoman and the Frank Miller reboot version have Catwoman as an enterprising, intelligent woman who uses her body as a tool in her criminal escapades. Certainly her sexuality has always been one of her tools, but don't discount the physical part of climbing and running and fighting. Her body itself is her strongest tool, so her physicality is very important. Catwoman is not a stick.

 

 

 

If you grew up in the 1960s, this was your Catwoman. Eartha Kitt (and Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether) may have filled out the costume enough to make teen boys growl, but she could clearly kick their asses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 1990s, here's your Catwoman. A little crazy, a little too fond of the skin-tight vinyl and we were never quite sure whether to root for her or not. But Michelle Pfeiffer certainly knocked Batman off his feet, saving the movie from the annoying Penguin. We're not entirely sure how her near-death experience(s) taught her jujitsu, but she barely needed her super-whip to win her fight.

 

 

I did not see the 2004 Catwoman movie. I was not alone. And those who did see it, from all reports, rather wish they hadn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But you have to admit, for sheer physicality, Halle Berry had the idea of Catwoman down, even if she wasn't supposed to be Selina Kyle. Oversexualized costume? Silly helmet? Impractical high heels? Yes. But we're not talking about costuming here.

We're talking about musculature. We're talking about strength being sexy, about making a comic-book heroine (or anti-heroine) something more than balloon breasts and soft-core porn.

Catwoman isn't a paragon of comic-book feminism, and uses her sexuality cruelly to achieve her goals. But Berry as Catwoman, in every picture, embodies a Cat who can kick your ass sideways and seduce you afterward. She carries power in herself, a power sadly lacking in 99 percent of comic-movie heroines.

This cat won't need to be rescued out of a tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So when I hear Hathaway wants to take on Catwoman, I think we might have a shot at a good Catwoman in a good movie, as Christopher Nolan wants to complete his Batman trilogy. True, I hated what the script did to her in The Devil Wears Prada - size six is nothing to be ashamed of, dear - but I hope she will spend her time reading kick-ass comics and working out at the gym.

 

 

 

 

This is a woman who might get what Catwoman really is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will The Dark Knight Rises finally be the movie that tells Hollywood we can have strong women in comic-book movies and not flop? They had wretched scripts for Supergirl and Elektra, and let us not speak of whatshername in The Fantastic Four. The rest of them have been glorified girlfriends, and the best of the X-Women were destroyed in the wretched refuse of X-3. Joss Whedon wrote a script for Wonder Woman, and DC refused to make it, because they hate us. Don't get me started on the brief insanity of casting an Australian supermodel as Wonder Woman for the never-made Justice League movie.

But then, comics themselves are stuck in perpetual adolescence when it comes to women. I keep hoping for better, and then I see really good comic stories about women trying desperately to kick ass in a G-string and high heels, and I wonder why Superman gets a cape and full (if tight) clothing while Wonder Woman has to wear a strapless swimsuit to work. (Yes, I know they changed it last fall, and good riddance.)

You gotta love this quote from Batman creator Bob Kane, on how women are cats and men are dogs: "Cats are as hard to understand as women are. Men feel more sure of themselves with a male friend than a woman. You always need to keep women at arm's length. We don't want anyone taking over our souls, and women have a habit of doing that. So there's a love-resentment thing with women."

Gee, and we wonder why Batman never could keep a girlfriend around?

Comments

[Sabrina]

I must be the only person who doesn't think the Berry Cateomam movie was complete dreck. It's not a great movie by any means, and both Berry and Sharin Stone chew the scenery with just a little too much vigor to be taken seriously (and they want to be taken seriously, which is the problem in such a silly movie with such a silly plot).

But the movie's concept of Catwoman? Is basically what you described here. The idea is that Patience only found herself and her strength NOT when she found the man, but when she accepted the idea that she didn't have to fit the mold of what society wanted her to be. That gave get freedom from society and her own limitations. And she left the man because he would limit her.

Personally, I liked that part.

[Derrick Ferguson]

Oh, yeah...Eartha Kitt was most definitely MY Catwoman. I'm utterly delighted at the choice of Anne Hathaway. Not only is she so hot she's nuclear but she can act as well.

Never saw the Halle Berry CATWOMAN and unless and until I can see it for free, I won't.

[casino en ligne]

That gave get license from social norms and her particular confinements. But also she left the man on account of he could point of confinement her.