CATWOMAN: Purr-etty good

Starring Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Lambert Wilson, Benjamin Bratt. Directed by Pitof.

FOR the comic purists, who like their Catwoman to be ... well, nothing like Halle Berry, this is going to come as a shock.

Because out goes pretty much all the Batman references, continuity and links, and in comes a bizarre sort of Feline Buffy idea that every generation has had a Catwoman, brought back from the dead by mystical Mau’s.

In this case, our new feline avenger is Patience Philips (Berry), a meek and timid designer for a cosmetics company who inadvertantly discovers the facecream she’s been drawing adverts for melts the face off its users after a while. Nice.

Offed by the villainous Sharon Stone’s henchmen, she’s brought back from the dead by her furry little pal and embued with the spirit of the cats, giving her increased reflexes and a desire for eating tuna from a tin.

Set up to look like a murderer, Patience finds herself juggling her new feline feelings, her attraction to investigating cop Tom Lone (Bratt) and working out why the marble skinned Laurel Hedare is trying to kill her.

As one of the aforementioned comic purists, going into Catwoman with anything other than trepidation proved to be unnecessary as, for all its faults - and there are many - it’s a disturbingly watchable, fun romp of a film

Catwoman is a curious little film. It’s badly paced, and suffers from a dire script that meanders from set piece to set piece with little character development in between. Yet at the same time, it zips along with pace and punch, the action sequences have, by and large, a stylish verve about them and the cast - Stone accepted - are watchable and engaging.

Berry fits into the role of the purring crime fighter with the sex-kitten charm of Eartha Kitt, ably assisted by a costume that leaves very little to the imagination.

Pitof’s direction, too, is notable. For his first film as a director he’s gone all out, throwing every trick in the book at the screen with a floating camera that never stops moving, enjoying the languid fluidity of a stray.

As a sensible continuation of the Catwoman story from Batman Returns, or the comics, this film is a huge disappoinement. But as a mindless, entertaining piece of summer fluff, it’s actually great fun.