Kurt Loder Reviews Man of Steel and The Bling Ring
Man of Steel is like a sprawling mega-budget CGI movie about other sprawling mega-budget CGI movies, writes Kurt Loder. The picture borrows imagery from movies much better (The Matrix, for one) and not much worse (the Transformers films). Unlike Richard Donner's 1978 Superman, which covered some of the same narrative ground, Zack Snyder's franchise reboot is just not a lot of fun.
In The Bling Ring, on the other hand, director Sofia Coppola chronicles a group of privileged teens going about their dumb business—breaking into the homes of their favorite Hollywood celebrities, carting away armloads of luxury swag, and later posing with the stuff in photos they posted on Facebook. The subject itself is unique, in its dismal way, and the personable actors hold our attention, especially Emma Watson, the onetime Hermione, but why should we care about these nitwits or the nitwit celebrities they targeted?