Creed Preview

Back in 1987, Mel Brooks released an intergalactic spoof called Spaceballs in which a news segment jokingly reports on the movie Rocky 5000.  At that time, Rocky IV was 2 years old and Rocky V was 3 years away from being released.  Creed is the 7th movie in the Rocky franchise and this time the Italian Stallion is training the son of his former enemy turned best friend, Apollo Creed.  

Rocky previously dipped his toe in the training waters when he attempted to mentor an up-and-comer named Tommy Gunn in Rocky V.  His efforts created a rift between he and his family and ultimately lead to a street brawl when Gunn felt he could never get out of Rocky's shadow.  Of course, Rocky was able to repair his relationship with his wife and son; and, of course, he beat Gunn in the fist fight.  In the next Rocky installment, Rocky Balboa, the former Heavyweight Champ took on the current Champ when a sports computer ran a predictive simulation bout between the two boxers with Balboa theoretically being the better fighter. In the battle between age and youth, the current Champ won in a split decision.

Apollo Creed died in Rocky IV during an exhibition match with a steroid-enhanced Soviet monster Ivan Drago.  His son, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), wasn't even born.  Today, he wants to follow in his late father's footsteps as a professional boxer.  He seeks the help of the man his father fought, the man his father trained, the man who beat his father and the man who beat the Russian who killed his father, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).  After some reluctance, Balboa agrees to train and mentor Adonis.

We don't get too much from the preview for Creed except that Rocky is training Apollo's son, but we can assume a few things: first, Rocky will have some unusual training techniques combined from his own training and his former trainer Mickey and of course Apollo himself.  Second, Rocky's training won't be limited to boxing skills in the ring, but life lessons outside of the ring to make Adonis a better man.  Third, there will be some cheesy jokes that help make Rocky such an endearing character.  And finally, we can assume Stallone gives a rousing performance in the revival of the character who hasn't been on film in 9 years as he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Stallone wrote the first 5 movies in the Rocky franchise and has directed 4 of them.  Creed is directed by Ryan Coogler and it's only his second feature film as director.  He also directed Fruitvale Station in 2013 which also starred Michael B. Jordan.  Though Coogler and Jordan and their 2013 movie were absent from Oscar nominations, they were nominated for 52 other awards and won 39 of them.

I'm predicting Creed will be another enjoyable movie in the Rocky franchise.  I think it will be warm and touching and sincere with some really good boxing scenes.  However, I also think seeing once will be enough until it comes out in a year on cable and will be worth watching again with nothing better on.  I'm predicting 3 stars.  Am I right?  We shall see.