Creed Review

3.0 Stars

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.  Apollo 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.

Creed has several pieces of all the previous Rocky movies.  The son of Apollo's glove man is now running Creed's gym.  There's running down the streets of Philadelphia.  Adonis has to deal with being the underdog and a much smaller opponent like in Rocky IV.  He trains like Rocky did in Rocky I.  He deals with adversity with his trainer like in Rocky III.  He starts his training in Mickey's old gym in Philly and winds up completing his training in a rougher part of town, also a la Rocky III.  

Most of Creed is predictable except for three pretty big things, without giving too much away: First, Adonis is the son of Apollo, though not how you might initially think; second, Rocky is given a surprising twist in the movie; and finally, the big final fight.  The most impressive part of the movie is Adonis' first professional fight with Rocky in his corner as his trainer.  From the moment he walks into the ring, through the entire first round, through the break between rounds, and until the fight is over midway through the second round is all one continues camera shot.  To get the action sequences and dialogue just right in one single take was extremely impressive.

Creed is a really good continuation of the Rocky franchise.  It was an enjoyable modern take on a 40 year classic.  It didn't win any Oscars, though Stallone earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination.  One could have made an argument for Johnson to be nominated for Best Actor, but this year was all about Leonardo finally getting his trophy anyway.  It was worth the money to watch, entertaining, and I'll probably watch it again on TV, but most likely won't be making it to my home collection, so I'm sticking with my 3.0 Stars.  What movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

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.