Review: Catwoman: Hunted

Overview: After years of being a supporting character in animated Batman movies, Catwoman finally leads her own solo movie in Catwoman: Hunted. After a heist goes wrong, Catwoman helps Batwoman and Interpol take down a powerful criminal organization called Leviathan.

Synopsis (spoilers ahead): Catwoman: Hunted opens with Black Mask attending a lavish party in Spain. The guests at the party are dressed as heroes and villains from across the DC Universe. As Black Mask arrives, a woman in a Silver Age Catwoman costume shows up. Black Mask is intrigued by the woman, who is later revealed to be the real Catwoman and has her accompany him into the party as her date. Inside, the two meet Tobias Whale, who escorts Black Mask to his boss, Barbara Minerva (Cheetah). After mingling a bit with the guests, Catwoman changes into her regular costume and goes to steal a priceless jewel. After getting through the motion sensors and the trip lasers, Catwoman gets the jewel, but then a batarang is thrown at her and sets off the alarms. Whale, Mask, Minerva, and the rest of the party guests attack her as she escapes and heads off in her car. After eluding Whale and Black Mask’s men through the city, she is taken out by Batwoman.

Catwoman wakes up from the crash and sees that she is being held captive by Batwoman, Julia Pennyworth, and King Faraday, who are agents of Interpol. The trio tells Catwoman that the diamond she tried to steal belongs to a group called Leviathan, which is led by Barbara Minerva. They tell Catwoman that they need her help to take down Leviathan once and for all. This benefits Catwoman because once Leviathan is put away, they won’t be coming after Catwoman to kill her.

After flirting with Batwoman to get access to her phone, Selina calls Holly (Holly Robinson, I presume) to let her know that everything is going to be okay. Pennyworth and Faraday get a location on Leviathan and send Catwoman in. As Catwoman gets there, Cheshire meets her and starts a fight. The appearance of Cheshire now means that Catwoman is a target of the League of Assassins. Catwoman and Chesire battle it out until Chesire gains the upper hand and Batwoman saves her. Cheshire mocks Selina, who has a bat as a backup before she reveals that she has Nosferata, a bat, as her backup.

Catwoman and Batwoman are able to defeat the assassins but in doing so crash and interrupt the Leviathan meeting. The members of Leviathan are Minerva, Black Mask, Boss Moxie, La Dama, Mr. Yakuza, and Dr. Tzin. They all have abilities of their own such as Intergang technology and control over demon monsters. Using all their resources and cunning, Batwoman and Catwoman are able to defeat most of the members until Pennyworth and Faraday arrive with the rest of Interpol to take care of the rest.

Minerva is still free, and Interpol allows Catwoman to go free. Selina heads to Paris where she is ambushed by more League of Assassins ninjas. Batwoman rejoins the fight, and they take out the assassins in a fight at the Eiffel Tower. Minerva is with Talia al Ghul and sees that Catwoman and Batwoman still live. Solomon Grundy is sent in to take care of the heroine team-up (nice run for Grundy between The Long Halloween and this film). Grundy knocks out Batwoman, but Selina leads Grundy to an abandoned construction site where she is able to beat Grundy by blowing him up with dynamite.

The fight is still not over, however, as Minerva transforms into the Cheetah. This leads into a pretty epic catfight (they made the joke, not just me) as Selina has to use all of her tricks and intelligence as she is pretty outmatched by the stronger and more powerful Cheetah. Selina is wounded badly by Cheetah as she is escaping to a tower above the site. Cheetah is relentless and follows Catwoman there. Cheetah leaps at Selina, but Selina counters and is choking her out with her whip. Lighting strikes and knocks them both down. Batwoman recovers and saves Selina, but Cheetah is not so lucky as she is killed by landing on some steel beams at the construction site. Talia decides to take over Leviathan after seeing Minerva dead and declares that this is another reason to hate Selina Kyle.

Before she leaves, Selina tells Faraday and Batwoman that she was interested in stealing from Leviathan because they were trafficking young girls and she was stealing for the money to help the trafficked girls.

Analysis: I am not the biggest fan of the anime style, but for Catwoman: Hunted, it totally works. The action is great, and I love how Catwoman’s fights build from thugs with guns to her taking on the undead and cheetah women. Director Shinsuke Terasawa did a great job, and he deserves more DC projects in the future.

Elizabeth Gillies was great as Catwoman and perfectly delivered the cocky, confident attitude that Selina Kyle is known for. Keith David and Jonathan Banks as Tobias Whale and Black Mask were great. I enjoyed Stephanie Beatriz as Batwoman as it was fun to see Catwoman interact with a different Bat for a change.

Catwoman deserved this solo movie as a precursor to The Batman. I’m sure the writers and producers were tempted to make it a Bat/Cat story, but they held off and never even mentioned Batman by name. This movie also had a fun, jazzy score that fit in perfectly with the action and tone. I really enjoyed this movie and hope DC Animation tries more fun projects like this in the future.

Editor’s Note: Catwoman: Hunted is now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray. You can order your copy, and help support TBU in the process, by heading over to Amazon.