Wrong in Catwoman: The Movie

¶ … wrong in Catwoman: The Movie

It is quite rightly said that results are assessed not by the effort one puts into a venture, but the results it produces. Cutting across industries, the ultimate test of any marketing venture, be it movie making, it is acceptability by the target customers, the audience in this case study who is the final judge of the product - the film Catwoman. The film is a jumbled one which is rated amongst the worse comic book adaptations to hit the cinema houses in recent years. The studio threw into water everything crucial to the DC Comics character. In a sharp variance, the Warner Brothers released and Pitof directed movie, the character portrayed in the comic, awarded her a new persona and even superpowers. The production was slick, with the Computer Generated Imagery or CGI being below standards. For example, an elementary aspect of color filtering was not address properly. The camera work and the editing action scenes made it quite difficult to understand. The movie received tremendous criticism from supporters of the Catwoman comic book character for shifting away from the core aspects of the character, with bad press that started to do the rounds prior to a complete year before the release of the film. Needless to say the film bombed at the Box Office.

Introduction

In the movie Catwoman, Academy Award winner, Halle Berry plays the shy and sensitive artist Patience Philips who can't seem to put an end to express regret for her own existence. Playing the role of a timid people-pleaser she is depicted in a job as graphic designer in a huge company engaged in the beauty-business Hedare Beauty managed by the autocratic George Hedare played by Lambert Wilson and his supermodel wife Laurel played by Sharon Stone. It was when Patience accidentally becomes aware about a dubious secret regarding the recently released sensational and revolutionary age-defying product, she sees herself trapped in the midst of a risky conspiracy. However, during her gloomy moments, Patience is saved - resurrected with the vigor, rapidity, agility and very eager senses of a cat. Under the guidance of a mysterious mentor called Ophelia Powers which are played by Frances Conroy, Patience quickly starts exploring her newly discovered dexterity and feline intuition, as also her history -she is the recent in the illustrious list of women who have been selected across history to be gifted with these unusual powers. (Catwoman: Story

Armed with her newly-acquired knowledge and vigor, she assumes the role of Catwoman which is robust, silky, and stealthy creature maintaining a fine balance on the blurred line between good and bad. Catwoman embarks upon her adventures as she lies in wait with a vengeance, however her double life is speedily made intricate by Patience escalating relationship with the sturdy police officer Tom Lone played by Benjamin Brat. Lone is falling for Patience; however he cannot deject his charm with the female fatale who seems to be person behind a series of crimes afflicting the city. After she discovers and starts to exploit her superwomen powers, Catwoman emerges stronger, swifter and poses greater danger to her foes. With this the threshold between Patience and her raw alter ego begins to fade. (Catwoman: Story)

Situational Analysis:-

SWOT External:

Economy: The shooting of the film 'Catwoman' was made with a huge budget close to $100 million and it reveals. As regards rendering of computer graphics, it is akin to movies like Spiderman, but it is nowhere close to it and there is an absence of a captivating plot. Certain areas of the film is edited so much that a lot of sequences become unsuccessful in conveying anything and finally what the audience sees is a cluttered mass. Plus, a lot of attention was given to certain portions including Halle Bery's metamorphosis being into a cat. The costume of Halle was another portion where a lot of attention was given vis-a-vis with earlier women who played the role of Catwoman like Michelle Pfeiffer. An exclusive feature which stands distinctly apart is the ten diamond tipped claws embedded with 800 separate crystals used to create the pave diamond look on silver settings. (Catwoman: Verdict)

Society: Quite at variance to the original comic book character who was a whore, Catwoman holds a job in an ad agency in the movie Catwoman. She is dressed in a skin tight leather suit along with a mask to match her blood-constraining leather attire and cracks a mean whiplash. According to the critics, Catwoman is over-sexualized which an element that dissuades from the film's girl-power message. This is something of news to the film director who persists upon the film's feminist message. Truly, in the film, Berry changes a diamond ring from her left hand to her right which is a fashionable symbol of female independence surges past her love interest at a game of basketball, faces her male bosses and female nemesis and usually kicks her butt all around. Catwoman at least from the reports and the previews shows the incongruity that feminism staggers in better compared to any other pretext imagined. (Redeem the Time: Catwoman and the Prowling Lion)

Shunning nature, feminism looks to make women equal to men by making them identical to men in ways possible. A difference exists between men and women on account of their sex, therefore while equating women with men, feminism therefore simply ignores or straightaway rejects female sexuality although they at times choose to commemorate it. Therefore, the more feminism achieves, the more feminism overlooks or eliminates female sexuality that results in disastrous outcomes. In our society there are a lot of Catwoman those women who announce their manhood and rebuff their womanhood with varying extent of success at the same time being used as whores in another confined aspect of their life, irrespective of what they contemplate and/or the manner in which they substantiate it. (Redeem the Time: Catwoman and the Prowling Lion)

Technology: On the technological front, the special effects used in Catwoman, was mainly created from a rubbery Computer Generated Imagery or CGI edition of Halle Berry which does not appear to be nice. Some of the special photographic effects could have been made to work, however the edited used to accompany with them was awful, thwarting the viewer from truly comprehending what was happening. Besides, the production was terrible with the setups rendering the continuous editing quite hard. The color filtering was very blatant and excessively done. An example of this could be during the fight scene on the catwalk during the first meeting of Lone with Catwoman. With the green filter in the camera, the red lipstick of Catwoman will be captured as black. Although some shots have restored the color through the digital process, however others have not. The camera work and the editing in action scenes rendered the action very intricate to understand. (Cast Crew, and Other Info: The Scores)

Industry:- In case one possess the added benefit of living nine lives, one would be under pressure to find a more prominent union of A-list talent and B-movie schlock compared to the passing in to oblivion "Catwoman" from production major Warner Brothers. The dampener comes very early during the opening credits. Directed by Pitof the movie has loose scripts which are replete with clumsy dialogue and uneven action sequences which make the production house Warner Brother spending $100 million. Associated distantly by the comic book character created by Bob Kane, Pitof's creation of Catwoman relationship with the feline femme fatale is limited to name only who appeared for the first time in the pages of Batman comic books during the 1940s. In the present film, the director of the movie has discarded everything of Catwoman's "Bat" baggage shaping her a new individuality and also a change of address, from the crime ridden Gotham to the similarly conjured Lake City. At the one end comic-book purists were opposed to the modifications and politicizing of the Catwoman lore. At the other end parents might also be similarly shocked by the film's hyper-sexualized reconceptualization of the character that makes Pfeiffer's leather clothed lynx appear nearly virginal. (Catwoman: Catholic News Service)

Berry cracking her whip lash as she moves around in a belly and bust baring attire must work like catnip on the anticipated male viewers. It might also be found difficult by the parents as regards the moral ambiguity, particularly the vague difference among things that are right and wrong. In fact, "Catwoman are not confined by the rules and regulation of the society" as said by the characters of Conroy. The viewers, searching for depth in character along the lines of the more superior "Spiderman" will be disenchanted. Even though Pitof shows an irrefutable visual flamboyance, the characters in the movie "Catwoman" stays two-dimensional as the comic-book pages from which they took birth. Because of the continued presence of stylized violence and an obscure sexual encounter, the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting has rated it as A-III- adults The Motion Picture Association of America or MPAA has rated the movie as PG-13 and the parents have been ardently informed to exercise caution as some of the materials might be unsuitable in case of children below the age of 13 years. (Catwoman: Catholic News Service)

SWOT Internal:

Capital: The movie Director, Pitof has put in $100 million unceremoniously in the newest attempt at cinematic comic book franchisedom which is an ample proof that a bad idea at Hollywood must be containing nine lives like that of a cat. Hally Berry gave her performance closely an unbearable as the one she gave accepting her Oscar award, assumes the role of Patience Philips, a graphic artist for a cosmetics company managed by George Hedare and his wife who is a model Laurel played by Sharon Stone. Instilled with the mystical cat Mojo, Patience does not just takes the features of a cat- consuming cans of tuna fish, climbing up the furniture, hissing at dogs but also gains new strength, confidence and also love, in the form of Tom Lone played by Benjamin Bratt. Nearly as perplexing as the motives of Pitof what really was he building remains the question. Nonetheless, the DVD gives 5 additional scenes, an alternate culmination to the movie, an scrunitization of the character's comic book origins, the theatrical trailer and a behind the scene look at the production. As a result of the failure of Catwoman and also the failure of Electra, many have started to question as to the fact that will there be a successful female comic-book film. (Purr-fect Dud)

Personal: Catwoman possesses a rich history as Batman vengeance and previous love interest way back to her first comic book appearance in 1940. However, the capped campaigner was not found in Catwoman. In its place, a collection of Hollywood writers have given this D.C. comics antihero a far and very sexualized makeover, altering her name from Selina Kyle to Patience Philips and dramatically changing her original story. The story of the Catewoman starts in the middle, with Patience Philips floating with the face downwards in dark water. However, her voiceover speaks that the day I died was also the same day, I started to live. Thereafter, the story passes quickly back to the episodes which culminated in her death and thereafter she was reborn this time as a Catwoman. Patience is a gutsy nevertheless insecure graphic artist for the cosmetic major Hedare Beauty in which she has been given the job of designing the advertisement promotional campaign which will launch its most crucial product at all time which is Beau Line, a facial cream which reverses the impact of ageing. Prior to accomplishing his job, Patience is visited by an obscure looking cat which has a penchant for doing the vanishing act as quickly as it appears from nowhere. The animal appears to desire something from her, and it assumes an important role in introducing her to detective Tom Lone, who very rapidly is floored by Patience's original charm. (Catwoman: Movie Reviews)

Thereafter, at the time of delivering her work to Hedare's production plant, in the late hours of the night she accidentally comes face-to-face before an awful secret regarding the new product which is a secret and the company finished her off as she has come to know about the secret. Brought back to life by the mystifying cat, named as Midnight, and led to the home of cat lover and historian Ophelia Powers, Patience finds that she has been presented a new lease of life by the Egyptian Cat goddess, Bast. She has come to be the newest in the long list of Catwoman having acquired preternatural feline powers. Therefore, Patience exchanges her conservative, wallflower personality for the confident hyper-sexualized crouch of Catwoman. Sporting a mask on her face and a whip in her hand and just sufficient skin exposure to keep her ample anatomy from getting converted this movie rated as PG-13 into a R, Catwoman jumps into her quest for revenge against her murderers at Hedare. Tom Lore remains rarely far behind and he grows more intrigued possessed with her at every catlike step. (Catwoman: Movie Reviews)

Product: - Catwoman is a film which is directed by Pitof and released by Warner Bros on July 19, 2004. The film is based on the adaptation by John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris and John Rogers from the story by Theresa Rebeck, Brancato and Ferris. Among the cast are Halley Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt and Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroyand Alex Borstein. However, the response to the film was poor and Halle Berry the actress in the lead role apologized for it. The film received heavy criticism by the fans of the Catwoman comic book character for moving away from the fundamental portions of the character, with bad press that started to do the rounds prior to a complete year before the release of the film. (Encyclopedia: Catwoman (movie))

The film even raised debate among the comic book fans regarding the casing of a black actress to adore the role of a character identified as Caucasian for several years even though it can be pointed out that Catwoman was also played by Eartha Kit who is herself a black actress in the Batman TV series and that Catwoman in Frank Miller's Year One was even not Caucasian. However, this argument fell to the side when it was learned that Halle Berry will not be in the role of Selina Kyle the original Catwoman but rather a woman named Patience Philips who is engaged at the a cosmetics company during the start of the movie. Catwoman fared miserably at the box office and critics also complained regarding the quality of the movie. The film received seven Golden Raspberry nominations during the year 2005. Halle Berry received the award for the worst actress personally with due apologies for the bad quality of the film. (Encyclopedia: Catwoman (movie))

The 4Ps of Marketing:

The 4Ps of marketing has been propounded way back in the 1950s by E. Jerome McCarthy that came to be recognized as the most long-term of the marketing-mix frameworks. McCarthy regrouped the Borden's 12 elements into product, price, promotion and place. This is the most popularly acclaimed concept in marketing, thereby giving a central organized structure or the foundation for marketing activity. Every one of these elements can in its turn be regarded as a mix for instance a product mix, promotion mix and so forth. Initially MacCarthy defined marketing mix as a blend of all the factors at the control of the marketing manager in order to satisfy the marketing manager. Further, Baker in 1988 vied that it is the efficient management of the elements within the marketing mix which generates a strategic framework for marketing. In the opinion of Yudelson in 1999, the 4Ps of McCarthy gave a suitable nomenclature for the study and analysis of marketing. But in the present era which is marked by the proliferation of marketing beyond business to consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) into services and concept, an apprehension arose that the 4Ps was unable to relate to services. (What is Marketing)

It was Magrath who in 1986 was the first to hypothize that the 4Ps must be broadened to include personnel, physical facilities and process management. But, as shown from the above list, the 4Ps can be widened to include the factors whish is able to bind the 4Ps of a service orientation. According to Rafiq and Ahmed who have come with the suggestion that the most powerful till date the alternative frameworks is considered to be the Booms and Bitner's 7Ps of marketing. The 4Ps have been expanded by them to take into account participants who are frequently referred to as people, physical evidence and processes. In their initial article, Booms and Bitner had in mind that the additional three Ps to be limited to service marketing. But, Levitt in 1972 recommended that some industries are existent whose service element are greater or lesser compared to other industries.

Enis and Roering have suggested that a product is defined as a package of benefits that possesses tangible and intangible components and thus the frequently cited call for a unique service marketing strategy is dependable with such a definition of a product. In this case, the explanations of the expression 'product' are frequently regarded as interchangeable with service. Film marketing comes under the broad category "The arts." Under these categories are included pop and rock groups, discos, various music initiatives, symphony orchestra, artists, film and television production companies, movies, television serials and radio programs. All of these require promotion or marketing often in a B2B or B2C settings. For instance a production company shoots a television series and then markets it to the television companies which are the B2B component which thereafter is marketed to the viewers, who might then purchase in on DVD media which is the B2C component. (What is Marketing)

Being the mousy marketing artist for the cosmetic company Hedare, Patience Philip played by Halle Berry, is regularly stomped by her bosses played by Lambert Wilson and Sharon Stone who is hidden under some seriously apparent soft lighting and cannot articulate regarding her creativity. When she accidentally comes to know about the evil secret element due to which Hedare's skin cream is wanted, she meets her end and there after brought back to life by a mystical cat. Subsequently in possession of feline powers and senses, Patience names herself Catwoman and embarks upon to look for revenge on those who killed her to death, stopping along the path to flirt with the detective called Tom played by Benjamin Bratt who is trying to get hold of her. Regrettably, among the demerits of the film is buzz. Being a despicable byproduct of marketing, buzz has the capability to transform worst movies into best which is normally unknown to the general people. Bad buzz has trailed Catwoman for many years from now, nearly to the extent where one could really feel apologetic for it, but it has to taken that Catwoman is a film which deserves the last drop of its horrifying status. Such an amount of progress has been made in the recent past in the sphere of comic books with two 'Spider-Man' and 'X-Men' productions that considering the source material as revered scripture is the sole way to be successful in this flimsy type. (Catwoman: (www.filmfodder.com)