Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 1 June 2019
‘Godzilla’ is back and doing just fine

By LINDSEY BAHR But “Godzilla: King of the
Associated Press Monsters “ is a sequel in the
It’s been a bit since mov- loosest possible sense that
iegoers had the chance requires minimal recall from
to catch up with Godzilla, the audience, which is like-
five years in fact, which in ly a good thing for those
cinematic franchise time whose brains have been
feels like at least a few overloaded with “Game
decades. In other words, of Thrones,” ‘’Avengers”
it’s understandable if you and “Star Wars” minutiae
go into “Godzilla: King of and mythology. Worry not,
the Monsters” a little rusty Godzilla is here to provide
on just what went down in some old-fashioned sum-
Tokyo and San Francisco mer spectacle, no Cliffs-
back in 2014. Notes required.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows a scene from “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”
Associated Press
It’s a low bar, sure, but at ers go, Dr. Emma Russell eco-terrorists led by Jonah
least Godzilla is comfort- (Vera Farmiga) also works Alan (Charles Dance).
able with its place in the for Monarch and has de- This group wants to use
blockbuster ecosystem. veloped a machine called the titans, of which there
The filmmakers have even the Orca, which simulates are now “17 and count-
helpfully shifted the focus the sounds of the various ing” including a pretty daz-
to another family entirely titans. She believes this zling Mothra and a less-
for this installment, from the can be used to help man- enchanting three-headed
inert Brodys (Aaron Taylor- age them. Emma lives with “Monster Zero,” to help re-
Johnson and Elizabeth Ol- her 14-year-old daugh- set the planet and reverse
sen) to the Russells, a now- ter, Madison (“Stranger climate change and over-
broken family of scientists Things’” Millie Bobby Brown population. There’s some
who lived in San Francisco in her first major film role), convenient explanation of
during the 2014 attack. who is precociously en- why the radiation from the
There are a few holdovers chanted by her mother’s titans actually helps revital-
though, mostly employees work and admires the pri- ize vegetation, which, like
of Monarch, the secret mordial creatures. many of the silly plot de-
multinational organization Madison’s father Mark Rus- vices in this movie, you kind
that studies the titans, like sell (Kyle Chandler, whose of just let slide. That said,
Dr. Serizawa (Ken Wata- intensity is at level 10 for anyone currently watching
nabe) and Dr. Graham most of the movie) is not “Chernobyl” on HBO will
(Sally Hawkins), who are really in the picture, having likely be very stressed out
being accused of hiding left after the San Francisco about the amount of ra-
Godzilla from world gov- incident, but is drawn back diation all the humans are
ernments who’d rather just in when Emma and Madi- likely absorbing just by be-
destroy them all. son (and the Orca) are kid- ing in proximity to all these
As far as the newcom- napped by some militant creatures.q

Amazon to release Mindy Kaling’s new

essay collection

Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Mindy
Kaling is taking a different
path with her next book.
The actress and writer plans
to release her third collec-
tion of essays through Ama-
zon.com’s Amazon Original
Stories imprint. The book,
currently untitled, is sched-
uled for the summer 2020.
Amazon announced Tues-
day that topics will include This Feb. 24, 2019 file photo shows Mindy Kaling at the Vanity Fair
Kaling’s experience as a Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kaling plans to release a third
single mother and working collection of essays in the summer 2020.
with Reese Witherspoon Associated Press
and Oprah Winfrey. Ama- Brookline, Massachusetts, she appeared on one of
zon is the country’s leading the store’s co-owner and her first stops while promot-
bookseller but has strug- manager, Peter Win, says ing the collection “Why Not
gled at times as a publisher the general policy is to Me.” A possible compro-
because rival stores are re- avoid Amazon releases. But mise: Don’t stock the new
luctant to stock its books. Kaling has a special history book, but agree to order it
At Brookline Booksmith, in at the Booksmith, where upon request. q