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Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

2024/01/07

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Solo Leveling - Episode 1 Season 1 Reviews

The long-awaited anime adaptation of the highly anticipated manhwa has finally arrived. The original anime scene at the beginning was truly impressive, showcasing remarkable art and animation. While it's challenging to match the artistry of the source material, A1 Pictures put forth their best effort, demonstrating a great deal of dedication with their top-tier team. The soundtrack was outstanding, with Sawano delivering a phenomenal performance. An added bonus was the decision to retain the Korean names without any apparent censorship concerns. While some viewers suggested a one-hour premiere would have been more beneficial, the episode we received exceeded expectations. The anime stands out in its effective introduction and development of all characters, providing a clear understanding even for those unfamiliar with Solo Leveling.

Solo Leveling - Episode 1 Season 1

For those who have read it, witnessing the characters' starting points is a truly enjoyable experience. Although the animation had its humorous moments, it served its purpose well. Criticisms about it can be dismissed by choosing to read the source material instead. There is a sense of disappointment regarding the episode's conclusion, feeling that the sequencing and pacing were off. While attempts were made to enhance world-building and character development, some believe the initial episode should have focused more on drawing in the audience with action. The inclusion of the Jeju flashback was appreciated, but the execution of the episode's structure could have been more suspenseful and attention-grabbing if it had closely followed the first chapters. Suggesting that additional character snippets could have been seamlessly incorporated after the Dungeon sequence during the hospital scenes, some argue it would have achieved the same exposition goals in a more satisfying and logical manner. Despite these concerns, many viewers are pleased with the absence of CGI and commend the show for expanding the world. The primary worry lies in how the pacing will be managed throughout the two cours, especially given the ambitious episode count for the first season and the rapid coverage of multiple chapters in a single episode.

2022/02/23

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Samsung S22 Ultra Design and Hardware Review

Phones in a flagship lineup have come to feel like variations on a theme. There’s the base model, the bigger base model, and then the biggest model with an extra camera and some other minor hardware upgrades. Features, screen size, and cost all increase in increments as you go up the chain, but you’re more or less getting the same phone in three different flavors.
That’s been true of Samsung phones for the past few years, but it’s not the case anymore the $1,199 Galaxy S22 Ultra sits at the top of this year’s lineup as an entirely different option. It’s the first S series phone to include a built-in stylus, a feature it’s inheriting from the evidently now-retired Galaxy Note series. On top of that, it still offers a very good 10x optical zoom, as well as some appealing updates to its photography features. It happens to be a great phone, too, but despite its place in Samsung’s mainstream S series, it still feels like the enthusiast device that the Note series represented. Samsung has, at least, made the job of deciding which of this trio of phones is for you very easy. If you miss the Note and you love the stylus life, get the S22 Ultra. There’s nothing else like it in Samsung’s lineup or anywhere else on the market, really. If you’re just slightly curious about the stylus, or the 10x zoom, or you just want a really nice big-screened phone without a lot of fuss, then you’re probably better off with the S22 Plus. It’s not for everyone, but for a few, the S22 Ultra is a truly great device. Different it may be, there’s still plenty of common ground between the Ultra and its S22 and S22 Plus siblings. All three models include (in the US) Qualcomm’s latest, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, as well as IP68 weather sealing, and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on the front and back. The Ultra and S22 Plus have OLED screens with higher 1,750 nits peak brightness, but all three have a top refresh rate of 120Hz. Only the Ultra uses an LTPO display, which allows the screen to change its refresh rate more than the other models, which in theory helps save battery life. It’s a huge, 6.8-inch 1440 x 3088 panel, so every bit of power saving can make a big difference. Not surprisingly, the display itself is excellent. At its default “vivid” setting, it’s a little on the warm side, but I only noticed this looking at it side by side with the Pixel 6. Colors are, indeed, vivid but not to the point of oversaturation. There’s also a slightly cool color shift when viewed from extreme angles, but nothing that bothered me in day-to-day use. It was also plenty bright for me outside, but I live in Seattle, so I didn’t exactly push it to the limit here. The Ultra stands apart with a boxier design lifted straight from the Galaxy Note and, of course, that built-in S Pen silo. While the S22 and S22 Plus follow last year’s design cues with rounded corners and a camera bump that blends into the side rail of the phone, the S22 Ultra embraces chaos and skips the camera bump altogether. Four camera lenses (and a laser autofocus sensor) protrude from the back plate of the device housed in… nothing at all. More than one person on Twitter told me it looks like a spider. And it is weird at first, but I’ve grown to like it. Maybe more phone makers will follow Samsung’s lead. Who knows? I’m here for it.

2022/02/02

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Netflix All of Us Are Dead Review

As anyone who has watched Zombieland knows, different zombie dystopias have different zombie rules. The zombies in All of Us Are Dead, which is based on a webtoon translated under the same name, follow basic zombie rules (e.g. they are mindless, undead creatures hungry for brains), with a few quirks thrown in for good measure most especially the inclusion of the “hambie” and the focus on students as undead. “We see many films about zombies, but only a few have students as main characters. In an enclosed space like a school where teenagers are clustered, they have to survive on their own,” said All of Us Are Dead director Lee Jae-kyoo about what sets the Netflix series apart from other zombie fare. “They have to run away from friends becoming zombies. These aspects can make this show different from other zombie films, and make it interesting and fresh.” Let’s discuss the strengths, weaknesses, origins, and exceptions of the undead in All of Us Are Dead…

Zombies in All of Us Are Dead have a heightened sense of smell and hearing while this is mostly a strength, as it can be used to hunt prey, it can also technically be a weaknesses when there is a loud sound or heightened smell, as is the case when a thunder and lightning rainstorm descends upon the school. (This is somewhat reminiscent of the zombies in terrible horror flick Patient Zero.) The undead in the series are also super strong, and more or less impervious to damage these are not slow zombies of Shaun of the Dead. Gwi-nam falls off buildings no less than three times, and keeps on trucking. When we see Nam-ra after the time jump in the final episode, her sunken eye seems to have repaired itself, suggesting some kind of regenerative capability. As we learn later in the series, those affected with The Jonas Virus, as Lee Byeong-chan and Detective Jae-ik call it, are medically dead. Their heart stops, but the virus stimulates their brain stem and moves the body. We see some hints that physically weaker humans, like Cheong-san’s mom, make for physically weaker zombies, but the bone-crunching flexibility of the zombies (Lee had the cast work with a choreographer and dancer to create the undead’s eerily clunky movement) and their determination to eat brains make them much scarier than their human hosts ever could be. While the All of Us Are Dead zombies have heightened smell and hearing, they lose a degree of vision in the process. They’re also pretty dumb, and can be easily tricked by humans working together with a solid plan. As in other zombie stories, taking out the brain stem—with a bullet or by bludgeoning, takes out the zombie altogether. Another potential weakness for these zombies is the fact that the characters in this world have knowledge of movie zombies, making references to Train to Busan almost immediately. While characters don’t utilize this meta knowledge as much as I wanted them to, it sometimes factors into the humans’ decision-making process, giving them a working knowledge of what to do and not do when facing off against a zombie. “We live in a system of violence. A nobody like me can’t change the system. That’s why I decided to change my son.” One of the less intriguing subplots in All of Us Are Dead is the “mystery” of how the zombie virus was created. It all connects back to one man: Lee Byeong-chan, a scientist who used to work for a pharmaceutical company before he was fired and found a job as the science teacher at Hyosan High. When Lee’s son is bullied to the point that he attempts suicide, the teacher develops a substance that he thinks will make him more capable of fighting back. Unfortunately, it, um, turns him into a zombie. Lee’s son is Patient Zero, and his wife quickly follows. The scientist experiments on them for more than a month before the virus eventually spreads because Lee leaves infected mice just bopping around the Hyosan High science lab. (Honestly, he is the worst.) Though the science teacher eventually seems to have a slight change-of-heart after being bitten, telling Jae-ik about the laptop with all of his information, he remains relatively remorseless for the horror he has unleashed.“If this virus manages to learn the human mind, a new breed of human will be born.” All of Us Are Dead throws an In the Flesh-like twist into their zombie story: some humans respond differently to The Jonas Virus. Rather than being turned into a zombie, they are half-human, half-zombie, or a “hambie,” as Dae-su decides to call it. These hambies are something new (“You know how students are not children but not yet adults either? I’m like that. I’m neither a human, nor a monster,” says Nam-ra), with all of the strengths of a zombie while holding onto their brain function. They are hungry, but they more or less keep the personality that defined them before they were infected withe the virus. This leads to horrific consequences when applied to Gwi-nam or even Eun-ji, who have a lack of empathy for other people and use their increased physical might to kill and eat, but allows Nam-ra to help her friends survive using her hambie senses. It takes a while for the Hyosan High students to learn the rules of how The Jonas Virus is spread, but it pretty much only happens if someone is bit by a zombie yes, this includes hambies. Notably, Gyeong-su doesn’t turn when he is scratched by a zombie, but he does turn when Na-yeon (never forget) uses a rag with zombie blood on it to “tend” to the wound. Also notably, Nam-ra does not spread the virus to Su-hyeok when she kisses him which, yes, I was worried about. While the zombies in All of Us Are Dead have some specific quirks, they are more or less your Classic Zombies: Fast Edition. Much of the interest in this zombie show comes not on a fresh take on the genre, but in the way it is all executed. As you can see in the featurette above, Jae-kyoo put a lot of thought into how to make the series visually interesting: “For those who aren’t fans of zombie films, we tried to incorporate many different tools in this for a fun viewing experience,” said Jae-kyoo. “We tried to make the school look animated and bright at first. We gave a lot of thought to lighting and colors for every single space. To perfectly convey our intention, we built a set 100 meters long. So we can safely say that we built a four-story school. And red blood contrasts with their green uniforms. Through this color contrast, we wanted to show the intensity.” Jae-kyoo grounded the genre horror of the zombie apocalypse by using one-takes and long-takes, especially in the first half of the series, to make the drama more immersive and realistic. “Rehearsing was everything,” said Jae-kyoo. “Hundreds of crew and actors spent the whole day rehearsing it. In fact, how the actors acted and reacted changed the whole storyboard. All the cameras did was try to capture how the kids reacted.” Jae-kyoo’s attention to detail expanded to his direction of the young cast, with an emphasis on “realness as well as chemistry among actors.” Following the casting process, which prioritized finding unknowns to play the students, Jae-kyoo held a workshop that allowed the young cast to bond. As part of the process, he had them swap roles in the hope that it would help allow each performer to also understand the other roles in the drama. While All of Us Are Dead may not be doing anything particularly new with the zombie drama, it is being released during the COVID era, which has unfortunately given new life to many of these classic tropes. Interestingly, COVID is mentioned on a news broadcast in-universe, which means these characters too are living in a post-COVID outbreak world. All of Us Are Dead will hit differently in different countries and communities, as not all people have experiences the global pandemic in the same way, but they are relevant no matter where you live on this Earth. At one point in the drama, one teen character asks another: “In some countries, they’re more sad when adults die than when kids die. And in other countries they are sadder when kids die. Which do you think our country is?” Later, someone reflects: “When kids die, you lose hope. When adults die, you lose their wisdom. Hope and wisdom. Which do we value more?” These are questions that are always relevant, as societies are constantly making decisions about how to divvy up their collective resources which is one reason why the zombie genre is so popular but they have become more visible during COVID. All of Us Are Dead comes to some pretty bleak conclusions in its analysis of these themes, but viewers may find some catharsis in that bleakness, in the depiction of collective and sustained trauma, in the recognition that everything is in fact not OK.

2021/11/05

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Red Notice Movie Review

You can’t argue with the muscular marquee value of headlining Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in a slick, fast-paced action thriller laced with playful comedy, even if it’s an empty-calorie entertainment like Red Notice. Like many Netflix star vehicles, writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s busy crime caper has more glossy industrial sheen than unique personality. But it’s diverting enough to justify the sequel so clearly set up in its final scenes, even if it’s unlikely to linger in the minds of many viewers beyond the end credits. Mostly, the derivative adventure keeps you occupied checking off the many films from which it borrows. It starts well enough with an engaging opening that sets up the MacGuffins of the film, which are the three ornate eggs that Mark Antony supposedly gifted to Cleopatra on their wedding day. Two were recovered, with one in a museum in Rome and the other in the private collection of a wealthy arms dealer, while the third exists only in rumor. The Rome-based egg is targeted for thievery on the black market, which spurs FBI special profiler and art specialist John Hartley (Johnson) and Interpol Inspector Das (Ritu Arya) to confirm that it’s still secure. It is not, because famed art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds) has already absconded with the priceless piece, creating the first of many, many chases involving the two men trying to outmaneuver one another physically, mentally, or, in Reynolds’ case, with an arsenal of “dad joke”-level quips. The other player in this quest is Gadot’s Sarah Black, a slinky art thief who considers herself the greatest in the world, and makes it her life’s work to be just one step ahead of both Hartley and Booth as she’s pursuing the eggs for a buyer willing to pay $300 million for their collection and delivery.

Red Notice starts with a lot of energetic potential but then devolves into a pastiche of other, better films, cribbing scenes that feel like they were lifted straight from a myriad of films from Indiana Jones to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Of the three mega-star leads, Dwayne Johnson acquits himself the best to committing to his FBI profiler as more of a brainy hero rather than just brawn, and it works. Reynolds exists as a quip machine who gets tiresome quick, while Gadot feels like she’s barely in it. While this may be positioned as a new franchise, there’s nothing here that sets up any urgency or excitement to go on more adventures with this trio.    
In the first act, Thurber teases with a breezy and well-choreographed museum escape that he’s going to subvert the big, loud set pieces expected in these kinds of films with something different, and then he doesn’t deliver. As the players jump from Rome to Bali to London to Valencia and finally, Argentina, playing find the eggs, the less each scenario feels original or fresh. Several action sequences are framed like first-person video games with the camera inside cars during chases, or handheld during fistfights to put us inside the action, but it’s far from innovative or exhilarating. It just feels like gimmicky video game cut scenes that aren’t anything new to the choreography, framing, or even fun of the fights. There’s also the issue of the audience ever buying that Reynolds is going to hold his own longer than a full-blown punch or two with Johnson in a fist fight. Then Gadot is added to the melee, easily holding her own, or just plain besting both of them. While I appreciate that Gadot’s Black at least gets to take her heels off for major fights, none of these people are superheroes, which means the only one brawling with any cred is Johnson, so there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief required.

And that’s carried through to Reynolds’ Booth, who is a test to the nerves with his constant, terrible running commentary of comebacks and snarkery about everything. Yes, it’s Reynolds’ signature schtick, but in Red Notice, he operates like an obnoxious talking doll with a broken pull string. In yet another suspension of disbelief, it’s unbelievable that neither Gadot or Johnson’s characters wouldn’t gag him with a sock by the second act, especially when Booth gets weirdly emotional with Hartley. Who needs bro bonding in a heist, relic, caper? Thurber makes a lot of other odd choices in the film, like not letting Chris Diamantopoulos go full weird with his short-man-syndrome arms dealer, Sotto Voce (yes, that’s the character’s name.) Instead, he’s allowed to rasp his lines like he’s in dire need of a lozenge, but never ends up taking the space an intentional bad guy should have in a movie like this. In fact, there’s no real antagonist of note to hang the stakes of the film on at all, and that’s because Thurber is more interested in maintaining the moral liquidity of all the characters so you’re left guessing about their true intentions instead of feeling any sense of danger at any point. It’s just an endless race from museums to Russian prisons to bullfighting rings and jungles, which all blur together without giving anything time to breathe, as we wait for someone to double-cross someone because that’s all the whole movie keeps giving us.

Plus, by the second and third act, every set piece feels derivative from another movie. Ocean’s 11, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, National Treasure, The Mummy, and even Mr. and Mrs. Smith could all rightfully accuse Red Notice of stealing their scenes. What makes it even worse is the fact that this cast is up to doing something truly different. Gadot, when she appears, plays Black like she’s having a lot of fun. Reynolds is more than capable of not coming across like a human blooper reel, but that’s all he’s asked to do here. And Johnson does his best to bring a competent hotness to Hartley so he’s not just the muscle, which makes him the MVP here. But the dialogue and strange, forced bromance that Booth demands of Hartley, even if it’s a joke, is tiring and not as engaging as the filmmakers think it is. Red Notice really needed a script with a much lighter touch all around. It should have been sexier and smarter, with less action, and more original storytelling. Instead, it’s a mindless diversion that’s blandly familiar, yet thinks it’s far cleverer than it really is.

2021/08/26

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Steam Deck VS Nintendo Switch

The survey conducted by e-commerce aggregator iPrice Group showed that across Asian countries, people have been registering much more interest in Valve's Steam Deck compared to the new Nintendo Switch OLED. For comparison, both consoles are designated to launch towards the end of 2021, but it seems that Asian interest in the Steam Deck has already outdone that of the new Switch OLED. Within the month of July 2021, Asians Google searched the Steam Deck around three times more than the Nintendo Switch OLED.

In Southeast Asia, the number of search results showed that people clearly cared way more about the Steam Deck, while countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan were more neutral in terms of search results. Curiously, Japan showed over eight times more interest in Valve's new console compared to the Switch OLED, which is surprising considering Japan's well-documented love for the platform and most of its titles. The first factor is obvious Nintendo's Switch platform has been around for a good number of years now, and the new Switch OLED only offers marginal upgrades over its predecessor most notably the inclusion of a larger OLED panel. Understandably, the market for such devices has already worn out its excitement for the Switch platform and its games, while Valve's Steam Deck presents more of an unknown quantity with regards to handheld gaming. One huge attraction factor the Steam Deck has is its ability to play games cross-platform, which simply means that users can game alongside those playing on PC instead of being forced into just playing within a handheld-only community. This factor proves even more crucial when you take into account the current pandemic and the demand for more gaming options among those stuck at home. According to iPrice, the Steam Deck is set to have up to 111 more cross-play titles compared to the Switch platform, which gives it a heavy advantage in terms of multiplayer flexibility. From day one, the Steam Deck will reportedly be able to run games such as Valheim, Overcooked! 2, Terraria, and Sid Meier's Civilization VI. Coincidentally, iPrice says that the Steam Deck is also set to become the gaming console with the most cross-play titles upon launch (172 titles), beating out the Playstation 4 (147 titles), and Xbox One (109 titles). However, this doesn't mean that prospective buyers should ignore the Nintendo Switch platform completely. Alongside the announcement of the new OLED version, Nintendo also announced the extremely-hyped The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild 2, which looks to become yet another modern classic in the Switch's line-up of unique exclusives (Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokémon series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc). Ultimately, the decision for which of these two handheld dominators to pick comes down to the type of gamer you are, and what titles you hope to play alongside your buddies. The Steam Deck is set to launch in December 2021 with a touted price of US$399 for the base model, while the Nintendo Switch OLED looks ready for an October 2021 launch with a starting price of US$349.99.

2021/07/30

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Critics Give The Suicide Squad a Perfect Score

Film critics have given their nod of approval for James Gunn’s take on The Suicide Squad. Receiving a rare 100% opening score by over 45 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has been praised, not only for the acting but for the proper use of Suicide Squad humor resulting in a highly entertaining film that’s leagues above the 2016 version. In comparison, the previous highest-ranked superhero movie was 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at 97 percent.

Comicbook‘s Jenna Anderson take on the film reads, “There are so many things about The Suicide Squad that are revolutionary, from the extraordinary ensemble cast to the compelling and downright absurd story. But the most surreal element of the film might be the way it showcases the endless potential of the DC universe, with a feeling of wonder that those who have spent hours thumbing through back issues at their local comic shop will probably recognize. The Suicide Squad not only raises the bar for just how much a superhero movie can accomplish in one sitting, but it proves that the weird and oft-forgotten comic characters are superstars deserving of your attention. I have never seen a superhero movie with such a refined sense of identity and such a love for the source material and if I never see one like it again, I’ll only be a little disappointed.” Justin Chang of LA Times also writes, “After 2016’s ugly, bludgeoning Suicide Squad, I couldn’t imagine liking and could barely stomach the idea of seeing another movie called Suicide Squad. I’m delighted to be proven wrong.” Fans will have to wait another week until The Suicide Squad releases over on HBO Max and in theatres on August 6.

2021/06/28

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Fast and Furious 9 Ending Is a Game Changer

In F9 it’s revealed that Han faked his death to protect a young orphan named Elle (Anna Sawai) in Tokyo. Nonetheless, the man Dom thought killed another surrogate brother was invited to the family barbecue in the last movie. Jakob did not kill anyone in Dom’s new family… but he did try to hurt Elle, whose blood held the Ares access codes. He certainly kidnapped her and threatened an extended member of the family. It’s also unclear if Jakob played a role in shooting down the plane Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) was on before the movie started, but he did work with Cipher at the time the woman who also killed the mother of Dom’s child. We of course don’t know if Mr. Nobody is alive or dead, but he was a close enough associate to Dom’s kin that they wanted to investigate his disappearance and save him if they could. In other words, Jakob is only a few degrees removed from Jason Statham’s villainous Shaw who was so quickly forgiven. But then, I suppose that’s why we never learn Mr. Nobody’s fate; nor is Jakob quite yet at the stage of being at the family cookout. That can come later, as there are at least two more mainline Fast and Furious movies in the works. In the meantime, the film closes on Dom once again at the grill. Trej and Roman have returned from space after spending weeks on the International Space Station.


 

It’s left ambiguous how there was enough food or oxygen for their unplanned visit, and how this wasn’t a global incident. (Also would international governments see them as heroes for stopping a terrorist like Cipher? And if so, would that not be a front page story around the world?) Whatever, they’re back from orbit and are now chilling in East LA with Dom. And as food is put on the table, everyone waits for the one person whose chair remains empty. While the movie has the good grace not to CGI Paul Walker’s face into another scene, the unseen driver running late to the dinner is of course Brian. At least in this universe, the reunion is whole. … And if you stay for the post-credits Han may yet truly bury the hatchet with the family’s most controversial member: Jason Statham. But that’s another story for another time. Family. It’s the mantra by which Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto has lived his life for nine movies, and it’s long been the handy slogan for the Fast and Furious franchise, too. But perhaps fittingly for an installment which sees director Justin Lin step back behind the camera, the theme of one’s chosen family has never been more pronounced. What it means to be in Dom’s “mi familia” is central to F9. After all, this is the film where we learn Dom and his dear sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) have another sibling who they never speak of: John Cena’s morally ambiguous Jakob. As becomes clear over the course of the film, Brian might’ve been the brother Dom chose, but that was only after choosing to disown his actual little brother. But it’s kind of a funny story about the past: it can come roaring back at you like a Mustang flying beneath a military jet. Hence when the F9 ending comes around, all those inner conflicts come bubbling to the surface. Indeed, the actual narrative stakes of the finale are almost an afterthought. The basic mechanics of the ending are fairly simple. Jakob and his oily business partner, poor little rich boy Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen), have successfully stolen access to Ares, a digital weapon operated from a satellite that gives its owners control over every operating system in the world. Or as Ludacris’ Tej points out, “Ares is the God War; if Jakob gets his hands on this, he’ll be the God of Damn Near Everything.” Once its upload is complete, Jakob and Otto will more or less be able to hold the whole world hostage. The actual folks who save the day, then, are really Tej and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) who ride a rocket-powered Pontiac Fiero into space. By driving the car straight through the satellite, they prevent Otto from gaining control of the whole world’s digital space. But back on earth, he’s already cut Jakob out at this point, making a new deal with his brief prisoner Cipher (Charlize Theron). Which on a certain level you have to respect since she burned Otto harder than a thousand mean tweets with that “You’re Yoda” line. By teaming with Cipher, the silver spoon prick sets Jakob up to die. Instead Dom’s little brother forms a new alliance with his long lost siblings, and together they bring down Otto’s truck and Cipher’s drone-controlled plane. More important than the plot mechanics of space travel and digital MacGuffins, however, is the relationship between Dom and Jakob. Established with total straight faced sincerity in the opening credits, Dom and Jakob’s backstory rewrites the very first The Fast and the Furious movie where we were told Dom went to prison for beating near to death the man responsible for his father’s racing crash. As we now discover through flashback, that was a lie that Dom only wishes was the truth. While the man who got wrenched might have helped cause their father to crash, Papa was set up to lose the race due to Jakob sabotaging the vehicle. This is the dirty secret which caused Dom to banish Jakob from his sight after he got out of prison, and it is why Jakob remade himself into… well, John Cena. He wanted to be his own man and a greater alpha than his big brother could ever dream of becoming. Dom Toretto, the ultimate paterfamilias, pushed his actual flesh and blood away and has been attempting to replace him ever since. It’s an interesting retcon which gives Toretto’s “Family” a little more depth and also sets Cena up to be a franchise mainstay, presumably replacing the unmentionable Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), whose offscreen beef with certain co-stars makes a return unlikely. Because, of course, Jakob really didn’t try to kill his father; it was Dom’s misunderstanding because their Dad asked Jakob to help him throw the race. And through the compassionate influence of Mia, Jakob discovers he really still wants to be Dom’s little bro. It’s a nice sentiment, although it plays an interesting contrast to another major subplot in F9. Much of the film is rightly about bringing justice to Han (Sung Kang), who died in Fast & Furious 6/Tokyo Drift (the timeline is complicated). Yet his murderer was forgiven and accepted as a member of the family in The Fate of the Furious.

2021/06/23

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review

For those who grew up watching the cartoon series Beast Wars, the premise of the next movie in the Transformers franchise may sound familiar. The Maximals and Predacons from the original 1990s cartoon will make a return in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, alongside the addition of a new threat, the Terrorcons. “Returning to the action and spectacle that first captured moviegoers around the world 14 years ago with the original Transformers, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure and introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons,” a press release reads.

 

The film will be directed by Steven Caple Jr., with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer, among others. Judas and the Black Messiah’s Dominique Fishback and Anthony Ramos of the recently released In the Heights, will star in the Paramount Pictures and Skydance production. Fishback will portray Elena, who works as an artifact researcher at a museum, while Ramos will play Noah, a Brooklyn-born military veteran who has recently returned home from service and is a natural when it comes to electronics. No specific plot details have been made public yet, but the movie has just entered production and will be partially set in Brooklyn. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 24, 2022. For more entertainment news, take a first look at Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne in The Flash.

2021/03/05

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Raya and the Last Dragon Movie Review

If Raya and the Last Dragon proves anything, it’s that Disney is trying to tell a more modern “Disney Princess” story with their latest animated effort. Commercially, Disney’s transition into the 21st century has been a smooth one. While the shuttering of Disney theme parks in the last year due to the pandemic has cost the billions-dollar conglomerate money, Disney has many, many revenue streams, and the Disney brand remains strong. And much of that brand still relies on the studio’s signature Disney Princess movies, which have not had as seamless a narrative transition into modern storytelling as many fans might have hoped. Rigidly faithful live-action adaptations of the animated classics that millennials grew up with are now recognized for their narrow romantic messaging, and the often racist, colonialist world-building that’s used to prop up this type of storytelling.


Meanwhile Walt Disney Animation Studios has attempted to complicate and modernize the Disney Princess template in interesting ways, but they’ve never quite nailed it narratively. Frozen was a step in the right direction with its emphasis on sisterly love, but it couldn’t resist shoehorning a thematically superfluous romance into its plot with the Kristoff character. Moana, which features Disney’s first Polynesian heroine, makes great strides in giving viewers a more authentic representation of a non-European culture, but still makes some classic colonialist mistakes blindspots that will always surface when the chief creative forces behind a film are appropriating a culture or cultures they are paid to understand that keep its fresh setting from truly shining. Disney is working to tell more modern stories not because it is good for our culture and world (though individuals involved in the production of Disney films might be motivated by this value), but because there is money to be made in telling new stories that give us fresh, feminist takes on the many cultures that influence the melting pot (or salad bowl) that is modern America and the territories of the larger global box office. Raya and the Last Dragon, which will be in theaters and available via Disney+ Premier Access on March 5, makes headway from both the thematic surplus of Frozen and the cultural appropriation of Moana. In doing so, it gives us the best, post-Renaissance “Disney Princess” story yet. Raya lives in a fictional land once known as Kumandra, a place where humans and dragons co-existed in harmony. Five hundred years before the start of our story, monsters known as the Druun came to Kumandra, turning both people and dragons to stone. Dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity, but fear and paranoia tore Kumandra apart into five distinct lands, each named after a different part of the dragon: Heart, Tail, Spine, Talon, and Fang. Raya lives in Heart, where her family has tasked itself with guarding the Dragon Gem, the MacGuffin that the last dragon used to save the world a half-millennia prior. When the Dragon Gem is broken and the Druun return, Raya sets out to find the mythical last dragon, Sisu, and to fix the world. We are told that this story takes place long ago, but Raya’s vibrant world is already well-lived in when we come to it. The societies of Kumandra are different from both the European castles of Beauty and the Beast or Frozen, and the more rural aesthetic of Pocahontas or Moana. Pushing back against the false binary of the “civilized” city and the indigenous wilderness of other Disney Princess movies, the world of Raya is both urban and organic. The filmmakers traveled throughout Southeast Asia to do research for the film, and it shows. Visually, Raya’s Heart homeland looks like Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, a vestige of the mighty Khmer empire. A trip to Talon reveals a merchant town seemingly in perpetual night market mode. It’s a Disney-fied version of the Banana Pancake Trail more than a specific cultural vision, but that doesn’t totally undercut the excitement the fresh Disney Princess setting infuses into its narrative. The world of Raya and the Last Dragon is both teeming and accessible at the same time, suggestive of a richness and depth that welcomes rather than intimidates. It is more reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender than anything Disney has done before. To be clear, like Avatar before it, Raya and the Last Dragon is still very much an American story. While the setting may be a fictionalized world inspired by Southeast Asian cultures, Raya‘s premise is classic Hollywood: Raya suffers a familial tragedy and then must set out on her own quest to save the world. Raya brings that storytelling structure into the 21st century by eschewing the traditional trappings of romance or personal glory (which can be done in modern, interesting ways, but, given the redundancy of those stories needs to be worked harder toward), and leaning into themes of healing, forgiveness, and community. The biggest stakes here aren’t about securing a love or marriage which, at least in Western media, has inextricable ties to the consolidation of privilege and power but rather the (figurative) soul of humanity. While Raya is, broadly speaking, a princess (her father Chief Benja is the leader of Kumandra’s Heart land), Raya’s quest to collect all of the pieces of the Dragon Gem is explicitly depicted to be about a fair redistribution of power and resources. The Druun are simple monsters, yes, but they are also effective stand-ins for the much more intangible forces that threaten our present and future: namely climate change and the devastating conflict that arises from the instability it creates. In Raya, our heroine’s mission is never about regaining or consolidating power. It’s about healing a community and, with it, the natural world two necessary pieces of the same solution. Raya and the Last Dragon has a diverse team behind its story. Written by Vietnamese-American playwright Qui Nguyen (Dispatches From Elsewhere, The Society) and Malaysian-born American Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), the movie was co-directed by American filmmaker (and Moana co-director) Don Hall and by Mexican-American filmmaker Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting). Thai artist Fawn Veerasunthorn served as the Head of Story for the film. It’s hard to imagine a predominantly white creative team telling this same story with anywhere close to the same success.

2020/07/27

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DUCATI 1299 PANIGALE (2015-on) Review, Specs & Prices

In the Ducati 1299 Panigale, the famous Italian firm has produced a sublime road-going, twin cylinder superbike. It has monster power and torque but it’s also more user-friendly thanks to extremely clever electronic suspension and rider aids.

This bike replaced the 1199 Panigale. It was introduced in 2015 and went off sale in 2017, being replaced by the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition. It was in 2017 Ducati also released the incredible 1299 Superleggera, or superlight.

The Ducati 1299 Panigale S is a slightly more expensive model that gets electronic Öhlins suspension amongst other less noticeable tweaks.

The 1299 Panigale family of bikes was itself replaced in 2018 by the Ducati Panigale V4.


During 2015 MCN lived with a Ducati 1299 Panigale S on the long-term test fleet for a year, covering thousands of road miles and plenty on track too. We found it a sensational companion.

In 2016 the Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario was launched to celebrate the firm's 90th year.

It sat between the Panigale S and R in terms of spec, while being spiritually closer to the ultra-expensive Superleggera that was launched in 2014. Ducati said it would also use a new version of the Ducati Traction Control (DTC) dubbed DTC EVO, which will allow riders to drift the bike on the power and use the throttle to steer the bike; all in total control as the electronic control systems will prevent the bike crashing.

The Anni is a strictly limited edition model, with just 500 built globally – guaranteeing instant collector status, and a massive rush to buy this bike. Each bike has an etched numbered top yoke to signify which number of the 500 it is.

Most striking to look at is the new racing-inspired black, white and red paintjob which owes a lot to the factory racing bikes in both WSB and MotoGP, and clearly sets the bike apart from the rest of the range. The gold-painted wheels are a traditional touch for Ducati limited edition bikes through the years, and there’s a gold hue to the special Akrapovic exhausts, too.

A new steering head insert shifts the front wheel forwards by 5mm, exactly matching the chassis geometry of the range-topping Panigale R, while a special lightweight lithium battery, carbon-fibre heelguards, hugger, and a different rear shock unit all contribute to the Anni shedding 2.5kg over the S model.

Once you've read this review and our owners' reviews, you may want to join an online community to meet likeminded people. We'd suggest Ducati Forum is a great place to start.

The electronic Öhlins suspension is really clever. In Race mode, compression and rebound damping is increased both front and rear, so too is the damping inside the electronic steering damper. In Race mode the 1299 feels like it's on rails; mid-corner, the chassis support and grip is immense. The 1299 gives so much confidence that despite the huge increase in power, it's much easier to ride than the old model.

The subtle ABS, combined with the clutchless, quickshifter gearchange, means all your concentration goes into your braking points and line selection. The brakes are super-strong, and in Sport mode you have the additional cornering ABS which reduces the risk of a low-side and makes braking virtually foolproof.


The power delivery is more linear and there's a 10% hike in both power and torque. The increase in torque comes lower in the revs and is more useable, so whereas before you almost had to wait for the power to kick in like a two-stroke, now it’s much more progressive. In Race mode the power is more aggressive, but it’s still a long way short of the violent smack-in-the-face the old bike was.

We've got 7 Ducati 1299 Panigale owners' reviews on the site, with an overall rating of 3.9 stars out of 5. There have been some reliability issues over the years, and high servicing costs seem to be a feature of Ducati ownership.

The 1299 has a taller screen, comfy seat and grippier pegs – proof that Ducati hasn’t ignored the road rider. The electronics package is hugely sophisticated. It features EBD, (Engine Brake Control), DQS (Ducati Quick-Shift), DWC (Ducati Wheelie Control), DTC (Ducati Traction Control) with IMU (Internal Measurement Unit) and cornering ABS.
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SUZUKI BURGMAN 400 (2017-on) Review | Specs & Prices

The 2017 Suzuki Burgman 400 brings this large scooter bang up to date. They have improved performance, reduced the overall weight by 7kg, and given it a slimmer and sportier look.

It’s nimbler around town and the revamped 400cc single cylinder engine is now Euro4 compliant and has improved low to mid-range torque. This ensures a swift and progressive ride on the open road.


Rider comfort is improved and the seating position of the new 400 is lower, more roomy and inspires confidence. Seat height is increased to 755mm, been made narrower, has a 20mm thicker pad and there’s an adjustable lumber support.  Newly shaped foot-boards make it easier to get feet down.

Suzuki have made the frame more rigid, slimmed down the bodywork, overall weight is reduced by 7kg and replaced the 14-inch front wheel with a 15-inch rim. It’s more stable at speed but still manoeuvrable around town. The seven-step preload adjustable shock, which is unique in its class, will suit any type of rider and is great when carrying a pillion. 

Brakes are efficient, without being grabby and the ABS system is lighter, which contributes to the overall weight reduction. Like other maxi-scooters it has a parking brake located on the dash.

To keep up with Euro 4 regulations, the Burgman 400’s 30.5bhp, 400cc single-cylinder motor has a new catalytic converter and iridium spark plug. Throttle response is smooth and the power instant, which is useful when you are in need of an extra little punch. There’s an increase in low to mid-range torque, compared to its predecessor, so it’s quicker to get up to speed.


The Burgman range has been around since 1998 so there should be no issues with reliability. However, previous models have suffered from problems with corrosion, so maintenance through winter months is key.

We've got three Suzuki Burgman 400 owners' reviews on the site, with an overall score of 4.3 out of 5 stars. There are a few tips there for luggage and equipment add-ons, too.

It does a claimed 70mpg, which gives it a theoretical tank range of in excess of 200 miles. An Eco Drive indicator reminds you when you are getting a little throttle happy, this could help to improve the fuel economy further and save you some cash.

The Burgman 400s new slimmer rear end slightly compromises under-seat storage. There is enough space for a full faced lid and riding jacket. The two glove boxes will hold daily essentials and one has a 12v charging point. 

It is fitted with an immobliser and there is an entry point in the bodywork to fit a chain through and lock it up.
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KTM 1290 SUPER ADVENTURE S (2017-on) Motorcycle Review

The KTM 1290 Super Adventure S is the direct replacement for the 1190 Adventure, and comes with everything the R boasts, but skewed firmly towards tarmac riding, rather than being genuinely dual-purpose.

The biggest and most obvious change, beside the lack of orange frame and crash bars, is the use of 19in front and 17in rear cast wheels in place of the larger laced items on the R. They are then complimented by shorter travel suspension to lower the centre of gravity – and seat height (from 890mm on the R to an adjustable 860/875 on the S).


That suspension is WP semi-active front and rear, allowing riders to select the best option for their load and conditions, from Comfort, Street, Sport and Off-road via the control menu – even on the go.

The S gets all the same electronic assistance for the rider, too – including Motorcycle Stability Control (MSC), multi-mode and lean-angle sensitive combined ABS. Just like the R, you can monitor all those systems via the all-new 6.5in full-colour TFT dash.

The S model comes on Pirelli Scorpion Trail II tyres as standard fitment in 120/70 R 19 and 170/60 R 17 tyre sizes.

Once you've read this review and our owners' reviews, you may want to join an owners' community like this one on Facebook.

The semi-active WP suspension has four settings – Comfort, Street, Sport and Off-road – which reacts according to your chosen riding mode, and can be swapped on the fly. The new S is sportier than the old Super Adventure.

The steering is light for such a big bike, which encourages you to really throw it around with relative ease. When the semi-active suspension is working overtime the 1290 remains composed, stable and boosts confidence.


The 1301cc V-Twin is now Euro 4 compatible and KTM have cleaned up the motor with a new exhaust, new cylinder head, including valves and cams, plus changes to the fuelling. Even though the engine is cleaner and quieter than before KTM say the power and torque figures remain the same as the old model, 160bhp and 103.25ftlb of torque. It makes 79.6ftlb of torque at just 2,500rpm!

KTM’s reliablity and quality is improving and the 160bhp is near proven in other models such as the 1290 GT and Super Duke.

We've got 7 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S owners' reviews on the site, with an overall score of 4.4 stars out of 5. Reliability has been a problem for some.

The base price of £14,299 means it's cheaper than the competiton and for that you get a decent level of specification. However, the bike we tested would cost £16,777, which isn't too bad and puts it much closer to the competition.

The KTM 1290 comes with an impressive spec sheet. Four rider modes, cornering ABS and lean senstive traction control, all controlled by the fancy new colour dash. Other neat touches include LED cornering headlight, keyless ingnition, cruise control, illuminated switchgear, self-locking manual screen and even a waterproof phone storage compartment complete with USB input. Heated grips are an optional exta.
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Suzuki DRZ 400 S (2001-2008) review & used buying guide

The Suzuki DRZ 400 S is tough, durable, simple to service and spares are cheap and plentiful. It's a bit heavy for true off-roading but greenlaners love it for its indefatigable charm.

We think it's a brilliantly competent dual-purpose motorcycle that’s as happy pottering through the gridlock as it is bouncing over a paddock.

The DRZ 400 replaced the DR350 in 2001.

After you've read this review and our owners' reviews, you may want to join the Suzuki Owners' Club to find out more and talk to current owners.


Ride quality & brakes

The handling is OK, around town, but as the speeds pick up the 21-inch front wheel makes things feel vague and wallowy and the brakes on the Suzuki DR-Z400 S are poor. The wide bars let you fling it around and off-road, once the standard tyres are swapped for something more knobbly, it’s quite easy for novices to get to grips with the DR-Z400 S.

Engine

The Suzuki DR-Z400 S's SOHC single is in a low state of tune, so it’s easy for beginners to get on and use. It’s reliable and easy to service at home. There’s enough oomph to lift the front wheel over obstacles and the low down shove makes traffic duties a cinch on the Suzuki DR-Z400S. This bike doesn’t do motorway speeds with enthusiasm, though.

Reliability & build quality

Build quality is fair, but the frame paint is easily rubbed off and the cases look tatty quickly on the Suzuki DR-Z400 S. The plastics are rugged and cheap to replace. Reliability on the whole is excellent and the DR-Z400 S makes a pretty fair case for itself as an unburstable, unbreakable tool. Just remember to chain it up properly as the thieves love them.

We've currently got 19 Suzuki DRZ 400 owners' reviews on the site, with an overall score of 4.4 stars out of 5. The main comments are the thin, hard seat and the inability to reach 70mph on the motorway, but most users love their bikes.

"In 2006 I bought myself an off road Susuki DR-Z400. Living here in Scotland this bike was the best all rounder I ever owned and I used it all year round - sun or snow.

"Unfortunately it was stolen in December, 2008 and I decided to buy the newer DR-Z400SM.

"The SM is just as solid as the off road version, but in snow with road going tyres it was hell. Recently I fitted it with Avon Distanzia trail tyres and it has much improved the handling on the icy roads of Scotland.

"On the road they seem to grip just as well as any road going tyre also. However they are rather expensive, but well worth it for your own safety.

"One problem we seem to have with these bikes in the very cold conditions is carb-freeze. The SM did suffer from this problem in the beginning but now it seems to have cured itself and has done 7000 miles in 12months. In all weathers without a single problem.

"It is a great bike for touring Scotland during the winter months and a great traffic-buster around town.

"They are really solid built bikes and well worth their weight in gold."


Value vs rivals

The Suzuki DR-Z400S is an excellent investment new or used. There’s nothing that offers the same degree of versatility for the money. There are bigger capacity options, like the Kawasaki KLR650 or Yamaha XT660R, but what they gain on the road they lose off it.

It's not a bike for open roads, but works well as an urban commuter (particularly with supermoto wheels and tyres) and brilliantly as an off-road bike. Just watch for paint getting rubbed away frustratingly quickly and budget for security as it can be a favourite for bike thieves.

The stock clocks are pretty basic on the Suzuki DR-Z400S, but there’s a readable rev counter and speedo and a tool bag on the rear fender. There’s a whole cottage industry dedicated to tuning and tweaking the Suzuki DR-Z400S from race exhausts to big bore kits.
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2020 KTM 390 Adventure First Ride

Third gear, flat out, pitched sideways, and standing on the pegs on an uphill sandy wash road I thought, Yeah, I could be very happy with this bike. And would I have plenty of cash left in my pocket to travel. KTM’s 2020 390 Adventure may only have 373cc, but it has plenty of big-bike attitude. This isn’t a beginner’s-only, low-spec and -tech affair. No, this is a motorcycle befitting KTM’s Adventure badge.

Quinn Cody joined me for the first ride of the 390 Adventure. Cody is a four-time Baja champ, Dakar racer, and is now an R&D rider for KTM. His input shaped much of how this smaller adventure performs, especially when it comes to suspension and handling. For me, this is where the 390 Adventure shines. Cody has helped KTM move away from soft, street-focused suspension settings that compromised off-road capability and performance.

And it’s a great direction to take, the 390’s 43mm WP Apex fork is stiff enough to handle some serious off-road, albeit at a sane pace as you still only have 170mm (or 6.7 inches) of travel available to you. Compression and rebound damping is adjustable via clicker knobs at the top of the fork caps. The baseline setting handled dirt roads and small bumps with ease, a few more clicks to the compression (right) side added a bit more resilience when the going got rough.


At the back, a WP Apex monoshock is mounted directly to the aluminum-die-cast lattice-form swingarm and supplies 177mm (or 7 inches) of wheel travel. It is adjustable for spring preload and rebound damping only, but I had no valid complaints. Yes, you will bottom the suspension if you ride it like a dual sport, but even when you do, the rear doesn’t buck sideways and forward control is maintained. The 390 Adventure can handle any terrain put before it as long as you attack it at the proper speed.

Street handling does not suffer for off-road ability. Suspension balance on the street makes for a planted and very taut ride on the road. At 387 pounds fully fueled, the 390 is light and agile, easily tipping into corners on the 19-inch front and 17-rear cast wheels fitted with Continental TKC70 tires. Communication from both ends is great, especially considering the 50/50 dirt to street composition of the tires. I feel the off-road-level spring rates actually help with bike balance and fore and aft weight transfer when acceleration and braking.

KTM also helps the rider out in the two aforementioned actions with big-bike-level rider aids. Although there are no rider modes—you don’t really need them with a rear wheel output of 37.5 hp and 23.2 pound-feet of torque as measured on the Cycle World dyno—there is lean-sensitive traction control that has two options: on or off. Lean-sensing also applies to the ABS braking system that has an off-road mode that turns off the ABS to the rear tire for sliding in the dirt while keeping the ABS engaged at the front. You cannot turn the ABS off completely—one of the only gripes I have on the bike.

Braking performance from the Bybre units was excellent. The front 320mm slowed the 390 with authority and communicative feel on the street while still having a light touch in the dirt. Rush into a dirt corner too fast, however, and you will quickly find the dirt-ABS setting is not as refined as on the bigger KTM Adventures. One blown corner and desert detour was all it took for me to remember.

KTM’s plucky single lifted from the 390 Duke is highly entertaining and gives enough motor to get down the freeway. Although you will be buzzing the engine pretty high up in the digital tach at a California-normal 80 mph. Top speed will break into the triple digits if you have the wind at your back. The power is lower than the last 390 Duke (40.5 hp and 26.1 pound-feet), yet the torquey nature of the 390 Adventure’s engine is a blast on twisting roads and really comes into its own in the dirt. Forward thrust is only limited by the TKC70 tires that do like to spin up when the dirt is loose. More aggressive tires would really wake this thing up in the dirt.


Take a seat on the 390 Adventure and you look down a very familiar landscape if you have sat on the 790 Adventure models. A 5-inch TFT full color dash is perched proudly behind a short windscreen that is attached to the LED headlight housing that is very much a spitting image for the 790’s unit. A four-button control pad on the left side of the handlebars commands all of the menus found within. And there is plenty to control, like the KTM My Ride function that pairs to an app on your phone for turn-by-turn directions and allows for control of music and phone calls through your headset. The switch gear along with the grips have a bit less refined feel and look than the 790. This is one of the only indications the 390 is built in India, the other being all of the quality-control stickers and marks all over the bike. KTM has also equipped the 390 with an optional Quickshifter+ that gives clutchless upshifts and downshifts.

The seat is a tallish 33.7 inches for the small ADV segment, but you more than make up for it with ground clearance (7.9 inches) and suspension travel. There is plenty of room to shift your weight on the rider’s seat in the dirt, and it also provides plenty of options for long stretches on the road. Reach to the off-road-type footpegs is roomy for my 5-foot-10 frame and the effort to go from seated to standing is low, again thanks to that seat height.

After a 250-mile day on the street and in the dirt, the $6,199 price tag of the 2020 KTM 390 Adventure has me daydreaming of a long ride down the Baja peninsula with plenty of pesos in my pockets for tacos and beachside accommodations. It’s a capable, comfortable, and entertaining adventure motorcycle, displacement be damned. Its street civility and off-road chops will allow it to hang with larger and much more expensive adventure motorcycles. KTM listened to the fans and gave them what they have asked for: a small-displacement motorcycle worthy of the KTM Adventure name.
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2020 Indian FTR 1200 Rally First Ride Review

When Indian first debuted the FTR 1200, we knew it was only the beginning for that platform. Four accessory collections first appeared in 2018 to hint at what the company might be working on for production, and now, after teasing us with a Europe-only release, the FTR 1200 Rally has arrived Stateside. The Rally model converts the flat-track-inspired base model to a factory scrambler, largely in appearance, but with some nice functional benefits as well. It’s the first step toward expanding the platform and a good step in the right direction.

As we have come to expect from scrambler models, the Rally comes equipped with wire-spoke wheels, chunky tires, and, of course, a brown seat. The bike is only available in one color scheme called Titanium Smoke: a matte metallic silver with red accents on the gas tank and around the rims of the wheels. The paint looks great and feels high quality. There’s something about the matte finish that says it won’t damage easily; like I can go hit some dirt without worrying about a little nick here and there. Similar to the base model, the engine and surrounding components are blacked out.


While the Dunlop tires used on the base model were intended primarily for street use, Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires with their larger tread blocks actually gripped better on the tarmac and the short section of hard-packed dirt we hit than the DT3-R shoes on the base model. Primarily, the wandering tracking issue that was caused by the flat-track-inspired tread pattern and striations on the highway has been eliminated with the new tires. With the Rally sharing the same engine and mapping as the FTR 1200 S (tested at 111.2 hp and 79.8 pound-feet of torque on the CW dyno) and not equipped with any traction control, it’s still easy to break these tires loose and remind yourself of its tire-sliding roots. Unfortunately for those who do intend to scramble on this scrambler, the equipped ABS is not switchable and is tuned for street use.

Built on the base FTR 1200, the Rally misses out on benefits included on the S model like fully adjustable suspension, LCD touchscreen, ride modes, and traction control. The screen and three ride modes go a long way toward making the bike feel modern and premium, so analog gauges and fixed suspension are a harsh contrast. The Rally doesn’t feel cheap—just a little dated. Indian has set up a strange buying structure for its three FTR 1200 models: The Rally and base model sharing the MSRP of $13,499, but 2019 models have a $2,000 rebate offer, which doesn’t include the Rally. So while pricing is technically the same, the Rally will cost you an extra $2,000 for now.


While out testing, the FTR 1200 Rally amplified a Mad Max feel of the current pandemic and quarantine with its scrambler style and deep exhaust note. Open roads and the lack of police traffic enforcement encourage the natural hooligan spirit of this motorcycle, begging to be backed into a corner and wheelied out. At low rpm, steady throttle application results in irregular pulsing in the engine, but under increasing throttle, the bike is crisp and quick to react. It doesn’t like to be ridden slow. It likes to eat gas. Rolling on the gas in sixth gear on the highway, the bike pulls hard all the way to triple digits—though the vibrations at that point may rattle your fillings out.

The FTR 1200 Rally costs more than the base model only because of timing and promotional offers. It hits scrambler style on the head, but the street-tuned ABS adds a challenge to any real scrambling. Is it cooler than the base FTR 1200? Yes, absolutely. But is it $2,000 cooler for what is essentially just a stylish accessory package? You be the judge.
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2020 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S First Ride Review

A combination of simplicity and ruthlessness is what makes super-naked motorcycles so tempting. They blend the lines of edgy and utilitarian, usually in the form of a bare-bones open-class supersport machine with a meaty powerband and top-tier electronics, but with a (more) comfortable riding position. It’s a category where manufacturers can express their true potential on platforms attractive to mortals. And not to mention, super nakeds are just wickedly entertaining.

Like the Panigale on which it is based, the Streetfighter is powered by the 1,103cc Desmosedici Stradale 90-degree V-4 engine, but tuned with dedicated engine mapping and given shorter final drive gearing (via subtraction of one tooth on the countershaft sprocket and addition of one tooth on the rear). The result of the revisions is a powerplant that Ducati says is worthy of 208 hp at 12,750 rpm and 90.4 pound-feet of torque at 11,500 rpm—just shy of the 214 hp claimed for the Panigale. But considering the last Panigale V4 we had on our in-house dyno belted out 186 hp, presume the Streetfighter to rip high 170s to low 180s at the rear wheel. Heck, Ducati’s World Superbike homologation-special Panigale V4 R ripped 203 hp on our dyno. It’s proof of how remarkable the Streetfighter’s powerplant is in stock form, and that there is serious potential.


It's a delightful engine to ride at any pace, but a monster if you want it to be. Ducati struck gold in balancing its power characteristics, finding an impressive medium between rowdy performance and rideability—even more so than the Panigale. At first touch of the throttle, the Streetfighter offers a crisp and tractable power delivery as it comfortably transfers weight rearward for supreme confidence at corner exit. But hit the 7,000 rpm mark, and you’ll witness the V4 in all its glory as it lofts the front end skyward and sends your glutes into the rear cowling under hard acceleration.

The engine is so tractable that I preferred deactivating a number of the Streetfighter’s rider aids, including the Ducati Traction Control (DTC) EVO 2 system—interestingly derived from Ducati’s Desmosedici GP18 MotoGP racer and employed on the superbike homologation-special Panigale V4 R—and Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) EVO to experience the bike’s raw capability and maximum fun factor. And while I enjoyed riding it raw, so to speak, the rider aids are superb. Toggling to level 3 of DTC and level 2 of DWC was my preferred means of electronic assistance for heavy-fisted riding, offering impressive corner exit speed and steadfast control, while allowing epic low-trajectory wheelie action. Radness. And heck, the Streetfighter even has a Ducati Power Launch (DPL) system for race starts and a lap timer function, which will rightfully prove their worth at the racetrack.

It has a chassis that will handle the racetrack too. Our testbike is the $23,995 V4 S model, with semi-active Öhlins NIX 30 fork and TTX 36 rear shock, Öhlins steering damper, and forged-aluminum Marchesini wheels, versus the fully adjustable, non-active 43mm Showa Big Piston Fork (BPF) and Sachs monoshock and cast-aluminum five-spoke wheels on the $19,995 standard model. The chassis is impeccably planted from midcorner onward, ridding itself of any sort of uneasiness and rear-end chassis pump that was familiar on the last Panigale I tested, while confidently ripping side-to-side transitions.

Each of the Streetfighter’s Street, Sport, and Race ride modes has unique semi-active Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 parameters aimed at different riding habits and conditions. After systematically sampling each, I found Sport mode revealed the best compromise of support for aggressive riding and comfort on less-than-ideal road conditions, while quickly and unnoticeably compensating for changing tarmac. Race mode created a more visceral, harsh feeling in the suspension’s damping, and I see its place at a trackday, but as a current racer looking for lap-to-lap consistency and no surprises, I’d likely enter the fixed setting, in which damping characteristics are non-active.

Being that the Streetfighter is aimed at a stripped-down, more comfortable version of the Panigale, Ducati revised footpeg placement and seat thickness, then fitted a one-piece motocross-style handlebar. The verdict? An ergonomic package worthy of all-day comfort. A long and low reach to the handlebar gives the Streetfighter an aggressive stance, but not so much to sacrifice leverage or create an awkward pressure at the wrists on back roads. That said, if the Streetfighter were mine, I’d roll the bar back just slightly to make around-town riding a little more comfortable and an easier reach for my average 5-foot-7 stature. It is an easy adjustment, and neat that you can quickly do this. Another plus for naked bikes. Even the saddle is pleasant, and only sent my glutes searching for relief roughly 250 miles into our day with the Streetfighter. The reduced amount of bodywork significantly reduces the intense heat buildup familiar on the Panigale. Heat control isn’t great on the Streetfighter, but due simply to the fact that there are more places it can escape, coping with it is no issue.


There is no question that it is ridiculously fun and addicting to hammer it on this motorcycle—seriously, listen to that 90-degree V-4 sing just once and you’ll understand—but we pay the price in fuel mileage. In our limited time with the Streetfighter, average fuel consumption was only 27.6 mpg, and it drops even further the harder you hit it. In fact, we burned through the fuel tank’s 4.2 gallons in just 103.5 miles and were having so much fun we literally ran it dry! But it’s hard to be mad at the Streetfighter V4 S here, only ourselves. The very definition of this motorcycle’s purpose is to wring every bit of fun out of every ounce of fuel.

We only had the Streetfighter V4 S for a short time, but we packed in a lot of miles. We weren’t able to do our normal instrumented testing or to dyno the bike, but we are working to secure a longer loan so we can perform a full test and live with the bike a bit longer.

This may be the most exquisite high-performance naked bike ever made. The Ducati Streetfighter V4 S combines high-level technical excellence with the sounds of a Mugello MotoGP race and puts that near your heart and in your garage for $24,000. In the world of exotic, high-performance Italian vehicles it’s an incredible value and remarkable experience. The sound alone is worth the price. The rest is just a bonus. It reminds us that high performance is a pleasure in its own right.
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2020 Suzuki Katana Road Test

In 1980, Cycle World dubbed the four-valve Suzuki GS1100 “the best all-around superbike in history.” It turned the quarter-mile in 11.39 seconds at 118.42 mph. It was arguably the finest-handling Japanese production motorcycle of the time. It was practical; it got 47.4 mpg on the CW test loop, and it was as comfortable as anything without a Windjammer fairing. It was a formidable large-capacity motorcycle with real presence. It may have been exceptional, but the GS1100 was nothing new.

Like other iconic superbikes of the era—the Kawasaki Z1 and Honda CB750, for instance—the big GS exemplified the Japanese motorcycle industry’s conservative approach toward design. Wide bars, circular headlight, and bread-loaf seat were the status quo. To the unacquainted in 2020, there aren’t a lot of visual cues that distinguish the era’s sit-up superbikes from the more plebeian UJMs that sprouted in their midst.

It’s as if Suzuki product planner Etsuo Yokouchi divined the GS’s inevitable decay—chrome oxidized from years of neglect, vinyl ignominiously patched with duct tape fraying at the edges, steel tank pasted with wet leaves. The 2020 version of the best all-around superbike of 1980 is a forgotten also-ran marooned beside a rotting front porch in the damp corner of rural-town USA.


It takes little stretch of the imagination to envision Yokouchi, in search of something future-proof, kicking around the Hamamatsu factory like some bored kid in the backwaters, hankering to change the world.

What he came up with was the 1982 GS1000S Katana, a futuristic expression of the Japanese design philosophy of wabi-sabi. Though very much based on the GS1100 platform, Suzuki hoped the Katana’s daring departure from established norms would be the answer to stagnant sales. With its rectangular headlight, triangular fairing, and long two-tone seat, there’s a note of asymmetrical discordance—almost an appearance of being unfinished —that articulates an ephemeral beauty, which is a very wabi-sabi virtue. Intentionally or not, the Katana’s radical thinking comes across as deeply rooted in ancient Japanese philosophy. It’s ironic that it was sketched by the German design firm headed by Hans Muth.

Yokouchi himself previously designed the X-6 Hustler, the GT750, and the GT250, but his stint as manager of the racing department in 1974 and 1975 crystallized his desire to build a full-on sportbike. The Katana’s clip-on handlebars and rearsets (firsts for a production bike from Japan) and notoriously taut suspension left a physical impression on its rider as uncompromising as its visual one. The Katana was a motorcycle that demanded sacrifice from its rider.

The Katana became the first movement in Yokouchi’s symphony of speed. But by the time enthusiasts first laid eyes on it, he’d already begun envisioning his masterpiece. Yokouchi wasn’t content with radical. What he wanted was a revolution.

And here we are in 2020 with the legendary Katana badge reborn for a new generation.

Like the original, the new Katana is largely based on an existing GS, the GSX-S1000. History repeats itself, with Suzuki entrusting the concept design to an outside firm, this go-around headed by Italian designer Rodolfo Frascoli. “[The challenge was to] make it a redefined modern motorcycle with real novelty,” says Kazutaka Ogawa, Suzuki director of design development, “not a revival or a run-of-the-mill déjà vu [motorcycle].”

The GSX-S and Katana share the same chassis and both utilize a street-tuned version of the long-stroke (73.4 x 59.0mm) 999cc inline-four from the legendary GSX-R1000 K5. Stainless-steel valves replace the K5’s titanium ones, and revised cam timing and gearing (via two additional teeth on the rear sprocket) conspire to deliver a generous helping of torque throughout the rev range for street-riding bliss. The Katana’s lower gearing means that at 90 mph in top gear, the engine is spinning at 6,000 rpm, and there’s significant buzz transmitted through the bars and pegs.


Compared with the semitruck-long original, the modern Katana looks compact and stubby, almost football-shaped. At 475 pounds fully fueled, it’s also around 72 pounds lighter than the original. The seat and tank are relatively narrow considering the four cylinders situated across the frame, but the rider is perched on top—rather than in—the motorcycle. After an hour in the saddle, the seat begins to communicate its, ahem, minimalism. The bars are lower and narrower than on a typical naked bike, so just when you start to feel antsy in the saddle, you also begin to pine for slightly higher, closer bars to accommodate a more upright position. Coupled with the nonexistent wind protection, the only option is to hunker down in search of a clean pocket of air and a different position to give the shoulders a break.

But if one must hunker, finding a twisty road to do it on is the natural choice. There, you’ll be dropping your head and hanging off anyway, and the Katana will be at home in its corner-terrorizing habitat. Heading into Borrego Springs on S22 (er, make that “the S22,” to use the Californian’s vernacular) is a reminder that once you escape the gridlocked hellhole of Southern California, it has some of the finest roads anywhere on the planet. The road ascends and descends with a mix of sweepers and third-gear corners that keep the Katana in the ­generously broad sweet spot of its rev range.

Trail-braking hard into downhill hairpins, the front suspension doesn’t offer the last word in hard-braking support, too quickly compressing through its travel and skipping off small bumps, ultimately making the front-end feel a bit vague. Getting on the gas to take load off the front alleviates much of the issue, however, so the Katana tracks well midcorner and through the exit. Otherwise, the fully adjustable 43mm KYB front and rear shocks (adjustable for pre-load and rebound) are compliant over rough surfaces. With its Brembo radial monoblock caliper (front) and Nissin (rear), the Katana recorded a 60-to-zero braking test in 133.9 feet, comparable to the 136.8 feet recorded by the Honda CB1000R that we tested in 2019. Unfortunately, the Katana’s system doesn’t offer the same feedback through the lever as higher-spec items.

In terms of handling, Michael Gilbert, CW’s ­resident MotoAmerica racer, notes: “The Katana requires a degree of physical exertion to change directions in side-to-side transitions, but once settled into the corner, its chassis is impeccably planted, confidently carving corners with the prowess of a sportbike.” It’s worth remembering that the Katana doesn’t disguise its rotating mass with a fancy counter-rotating crank like many of today’s cutting-edge literbikes. The K5 engine is, after all, essentially a 15-year-old unit.

But that 15-year-old engine is the Katana’s party piece. The GSX-R1000 K5 is one of the most notorious motorcycles of the halcyon age of race-replica superbikes. Valentino Rossi describes his 500cc grand prix motorcycle as a “bike beyond all reason.” Mere mortals would make a similar remark about the GSX-R1000 K5. It was an absolute gorilla and delivered all its power with not one rider aid, except excellent throttle response and predictable, abundant torque. Suffice it to say, there’s ample reason BMW studied the K5 powerplant when building its first S1000RR superbike. Subsequent Gixxers got heavier as emissions standards grew stricter, and power modes and other electronics were added, so in many regards, the K5 represents perhaps the purest evolution of raw GSX-R.

Like a 15-year-old barrel of bourbon that’s lost more heavenly fluid to the angels than its seven-year-old counterpart, the Katana motor has lost a few ponies and revs in its revamped role as a roadbike. Suzuki chief engineer Satoru Terada emphasizes: “We didn’t want to unnecessarily pursue peak power, but instead focus on pursuing the ideal characteristic for streetfighter models that correspond to Katana’s positioning in the market.” On our dyno, the Katana produces 139.6 horsepower at 10,100 rpm and 76.3 pound-feet of torque at 9,200 rpm. The last time we put a K5 on the dyno, it produced 156.9 horsepower at 11,500 rpm and 78.9 pound-feet of torque at 8,600 rpm. So, while the Katana’s unit isn’t the uncut original, it’s still a high-proof swig of Japanese firewater. And to hear it is to know it. That muscular, classic-four rumble is Suzuki’s leitmotif—all induction howl and on-the-pipe savagery. The exhaust note sounds bassy and full by 2020 standards.

At the first touch of the throttle, it’s all systems go. While on-off throttle isn’t abrupt—the ’16 GSX-S’s fueling niggles were resolved with ignition and EFI updates in 2018 and 2019—the throttle is like a hair trigger, requiring the most delicate touch. On the gas, the motor has that frenetic yet buttery power delivery characteristic of a 1,000cc four. There’s so much grunt down low that taking corners in too high a gear isn’t really a thing. But hit 7,000 rpm and the motor comes to life, resurrecting Y2K5 images of our wayward, wheel-lofting youth. Where the K5 was searingly fast—just fast as hell—the Katana is simply fast. Fast as purgatory maybe. Fast enough that it’s hard to restrain yourself from being a glutton of vroom, gorging yourself on whopping helpings of horsepower and noise. As the poet William Blake said, “Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained”—perhaps not a great excuse in the event a cop pings you in a moment of unrestrained throttle twisting, but still.

On a Katana, desire is measured by quarter-mile trap speeds. At our testing facility, it set a time of 10.86 seconds at 133.3 mph and went from zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds—that’s not too far off times set by current superbikes.

With an excess of exuberance, we found the Katana delivered an average of 43 mpg. With its diminutive 3.2-gallon tank, expect to start getting nervous when the tripmeter hits just 100 miles.

The Katana has a slipper/assist clutch that’s as light as can be and barely needs to be touched on upshifts. While a quickshifter would be nice, the gearbox is so lovely, it doesn’t seem a glaring omission. Besides, blipping the throttle on downshifts provides a period-correct pleasure. It’s easy to find neutral at a standstill; the shift lever feels light, and the close-ratio box just begs to be frequently exploited for the pure joy of it.

That being said, at $13,499, the Katana isn’t ­particularly well-equipped. It has nonswitchable ABS and three-­level traction control (plus off), but neither are lean-angle-sensitive. The LCD dash is a bit outmoded, and several of our testers found it difficult to navigate. It also lacks the brightness we’ve grown accustomed to with TFT displays.

There’s no doubt aesthetics are an important part of the Katana’s formula. Consequently, pride of ownership is of great value here, so the stakes are high when it comes to fit-and-finish. Unfortunately, the Katana falls a bit short. Welds on the aluminum frame are inelegant-looking compared with those of the K5, which were as precise and delicate as the piping on a wedding cake. Likewise, the plastic tank cover has a thin seam discernible through the paint, and the seat-cover material has an odd latex feel.

Gilbert says the whole package feels like a ­15-year-old motorcycle. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In its homage to 1981, Suzuki ended up with an ode to 2005. But there’s more to it than that.

For 2020, Suzuki took a sportbike and turned it into a standard. In the ’80s, it took a standard and turned it into a sportbike. It illustrates the vast evolution of the motorcycle (and of market demands) in 40 short years.

The original Katana marks a turning point in that evolution, a distinct moment in a two-wheeled world on the cusp of change. Yokouchi’s Katana looks radical to this day, but it was not his revolution. That would be the 1985 GSX-R750, the bike that made him the father of the modern sportbike. While the Katana’s air-cooled engine and steel-tube double-cradle frame were mechanically conventional, the GSX-R was revolutionary in practically every way.

In retrospect, the original Katana is a transition bike, a one-way bridge between the sit-up superbikes of the 1970s and race-replica R sportbikes ushered in by the first GSX-R. The 2020 Katana is so special because it transports its rider back and forth between both of those worlds. It’s a mashup of the evolution of motorcycling, the missing link between generations. It bends the line between the GS1100, GS1000S Katana, GSX-R750, and GSX-R1000 K5, transforming it into a closed loop.

The challenge with building a retro bike—especially one that reinterprets an icon that was all about looking ahead—is it risks coming out retrograde, not retrospective. But the Katana’s unique blend of performance, style, and authentically Japanese sensibilities makes it a true retrospective that honors not just its namesake, but also Suzuki’s storied history and pursuit of GS excellence.