Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 7 November 2019
'Midway' turns the WW II battle into a cartoon

By MARK KENNEDY ing some of the best action cracked Japan's code sys-
Associated Press sequences in years with the tem, anticipated Japanese
The first thing director Ro- most banal of words. naval movements and
land Emmerich should do What's the point of scour- gained the upper hand.
after his latest movie "Mid- ing 1941 Navy regulations The battle ended Japan's
way" hits theaters is apolo- to ground the real-life char- aspirations of naval domi-
gize. acters in authentic military nance in the Pacific and
Apologize to the visual ef- gear if they say stuff like showed the Allies that vic-
fects crew, the stuntmen, this: "I guess every battle tory was possible.
the carpenters, the cos- needs a miracle." In the actual battle theater
tumers and artists. He has What's the point of locating are the brave, bad-boy
squandered their consid- the original blueprints of a bomber pilot Dick Best (Ed
erable visual skill in retell- gun, and then carefully Skrein), the brave but more
ing the crucial World War II recreating it, if the script cautious Clarence Dickin-
battle at Midway by meld- calls for an airman to tell his son (Luke Kleintank), the
This image released by Lionsgate shows Nick Jonas in a scene downhome brave Admiral
from “Midway.” William "Bull" Halsey (Dennis
Associated Press Quaid), the swaggeringly
pilot: "You fly like you don't ing gum next to a photo of brave Jimmy Doolittle (Aar-
care if we come home." their wives in the cockpit on Eckhart) and the brave
Emmerich has turned "Mid- during dogfights. and cocksure Bruno Gaido
way " into another of his Tooke's one-dimensional (a mustachioed Nick Jo-
films, "Independence Day," characters help the plot nas, reaching the very limits
which was cartoony but along by stating only the of his acting skills).
worked because we knew very obvious, like "If we You can instantly tell why
it was over the top. Here, lose, we lose the Pacific" these actors signed up.
the director has taken real, and "This place is a powder Jonas gets to shoot an
living men who acted he- keg." (Keep that last one in anti-aircraft artillery gun
roically and turned them mind; stuff will blow up and at a plunging Japanese
into pulp comic strip char- it will be called foreshad- Zero and prove his cour-
acters. He might need owing.) age. "That was the bravest
to apologize to them the The Battle of Midway took damn thing I've ever seen.
most. place between June 4-7, What's your name, son?" an
Screenwriter Wes Tooke 1942, and pitted Japanese awed officer says. Skrein,
has apparently never seen Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, as Best, gets to be a dare-
a cliche he didn't want to architect of the raid on devil pilot who is admired
embrace. His script is as tex- Pearl Harbor, against U.S. by everyone. "Men like
tured and nuanced as an Navy Adm. Chester Nimitz. Dick Best are the reason
upbeat newsreel from the The U.S. had been stung by we're gonna win this war,"
'40s. No, there's no young the sneak attack in Hawaii says one awed pilot. Eck-
G.I nicknamed Brooklyn, and were underdogs in the hart gets to strut about in
but there are hotshot fly- Pacific. a leather flying jacket and
boys who stick their chew- But the U.S. Navy, having look awesome.q

Is this the end for Juan Cabrillo and his team?

Readers of this ongoing the existence of a man he
"Oregon Files" series will rec- thought was dead and
ognize the standard open- the weapons at his finger-
ing of a Clive Cussler novel, tips, he knows the ensuing
but it quickly takes a huge cat-and-mouse game will
turn and becomes an all- be the most difficult battle
out nonstop action thriller. he's ever encountered. Es-
It seems like a typical as- pecially since his enemy al-
signment to rescue three ways seems to be one step
American spies in Brazil, but ahead of him.
Juan Cabrillo and the crew Boyd Morrison has taken
of the Oregon have cruised this Clive Cussler series to
into a deadly trap. A ghost new heights, and "Final Op-
has been resurrected, and tion" is the best one yet.
now he's after Cabrillo. He The story hits the gas pedal
knows about all about the and never taps the brakes.
Oregon and commands a Having an enemy that is
This cover image released by
Putnam shows "Final Option" vessel that is virtually identi- essentially a mirror image
by Clive Cussler and Boyd cal. of the hero adds extra sus-
Morrison. He has a team with similar pense and mayhem. The
Associated Press talents, and the only thing characters truly seem in
By JEFF AYERS in the way of this ghost's jeopardy, and nothing will
Associated Press plan for domination is Ca- ever be the same. Cussler
"Final Option," Putnam, brillo being alive. That soon and Morrison have writ-
by Clive Cussler and Boyd will change. ten another guaranteed
Morrison Once Cabrillo learns about bestseller.q