Halle Berry vs. Critics

The Oscar winner reminisced about negative reviews for one of her old movies…

A few days ago, Entertainment Weekly published an oral history about Catwoman, the superhero movie starring Halle Berry that opened in theaters almost exactly 20 years ago (July 23, 2004, to be precise). The film was not particularly well received, and its commercial failure, paired with that of Elektra the following year, was one of the reasons Ike Perlmutter resisted the notion of making a Captain Marvel movie until shortly before his ouster from Marvel Studios.

Looking back on the negative reviews, Berry made this remark, explaining why the film has found new fans in recent years: “Critics have so much power. When a movie comes out, if critics say it’s not worth watching and smash it, people listen. Critics aren’t talking about it now, and people have the freedom to discover it on their own without a reminder of what critics said about it. Younger generations don’t know what was said back then. They discover it on their own and enjoy its merits without being mind-led to think a certain way.”