I'll be the first to admit I was sceptical going into seeing this. I have never once seen a complete Rocky movie; from what I have seen I thought it seemed like a slightly bland, run-of-the-mill underdog story that had been done to death. All that said however, something felt different when I saw the trailer for Creed. Ryan Coogler's spin off/sequel to the now legendary Rocky franchise caught my attention with it's focus on a new star, the lineage relating to a former antagonist of the franchise and the overall look of the film. With a huge fan base to please and the rebuilding of a fading franchise on the line, does Creed go for the proverbial 12 rounds or is this just a one sided beat down with no potential for recovery?
Creed follows Adonis Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan); with a background in juvenile detention centres, Adonis finds family in the wife of his late father, now legendary boxer Apollo Creed, who died before he was born. He feels fighting is in his blood and after bruising back-alley fighters in Tijuana, he seeks out another legend boxer in Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him and allow him the chance to forge his own path. When a potential opportunity with the number 1 fighter in the world presents itself, issues both professional and personal start to cast a shadow over Creed...
As per usual, we'll start with the utmost positive; the cinematography on this film is outstanding! Ryan Coogler really does an amazing job of creating something visually different for a fight movie. From long tracking shots to quick montage sequences, everything looks different yet retains a classic fight movie feel. The highlight moment of the film to me is a boxing match in the middle of the story; Coogler makes this entire fight, from the locker room out to the ring right through to the closing bell of the match, look like it was shot in one take. The very clever Birdman-esque editing is barely noticeable and as the battle-scars begin to show on the faces of the fighters I have no idea how they did it. It had me on the edge of my seat and the fight choreography in general was completely awesome. Easily the best boxing match I've ever seen in cinema. The inevitable finale fight is beautifully delivered as well; while it wasn't a one-take fight the delivery of the fighting, pep talking between rounds, the choreography, the music, acting and pretty much everything was on point. Tension was all around in the cinema with everyone clearly invested and for good reason. Brilliant stuff.
Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone are fantastic in this film together. Jordan brings a true leading man performance to the screen, his focus is captivating, his physique is imposing and his characters desire is beautifully realised, partially due to fantastic direction from Coogler. Stallone is the best I've ever seen him; after seeing several Rambo and Expendables movies (plus bits and pieces of Rocky films) I can safely say I was not expecting quality from Stallone but surprisingly he seems very at home in more subtle, nuanced acting. His delivery while still a bit grumbly is very genuine and emotional with him acting his heart out in every scene. He is building serious 'best supporting actor' buzz and it's not hard to see why. A fantastic performance but in my humble opinion the tour-de-force that is Michael B. Jordan steals the show. Together with an unbelievably good chemistry they create magic as a movie duo and I could just keep watching them all day.
Any references to past Rocky movies are done with the utmost respect for the franchise and are for the most part very subtle. However this does bring me on to one of my issues with the film: Some of the references to past Rocky films are slightly forced and feel a bit more like pandering to fans. The main problem I have with this is that none of them seem like they needed to be there. One montage moment is dangerously close to the original's classic montage and while it is different in some respects, others are so obvious it can be a bit cringy. A small quibble but still a problem nonetheless.
The primary problem I had with Creed was with the love interest to Adonis, Bianca (Tess Thomson). While the acting was fine and I have no issues with the character herself, the role she played within the story was the problem. She was a well rounded character with emotional weight but Bianca was just plain boring in the context of the story; I had to look up her name online to remember it and considering I didn't have to do that for a name like Adonis, that's not good. She is given qualities and moments that are irrelevant and never serve the story in any way. Overall Bianca just appears to be there so that there's a woman in the film and so she can be at the fight to cheer Creed on when it counts, which is a shame since both the character herself and Thomson's performance of said character were very good. As a result of this a couple of scenes, while good in their own right, could very easily have been taken out in order to speed things along. Had the qualities and moments been made more relevant to the story, Bianca could have been an outstanding side character alongside Stallone and Jordan.
Overall Creed is one of my favourite fight movies; up there with Warrior and The Wrestler, this could potentially be the start of a very high quality spin off film series. Jordan is excellent, Stallone is at his best, the cinematography is phenomenal with my favourite boxing fight ever realised on screen. While it does have problems with one character, this film has real heart with the fights definitely taking a backseat to the characters and the storyline. You know a fighting film is done right when the story itself would still be good if you took the fights out of it. A definite knockout win for this one.
Creed follows Adonis Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan); with a background in juvenile detention centres, Adonis finds family in the wife of his late father, now legendary boxer Apollo Creed, who died before he was born. He feels fighting is in his blood and after bruising back-alley fighters in Tijuana, he seeks out another legend boxer in Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him and allow him the chance to forge his own path. When a potential opportunity with the number 1 fighter in the world presents itself, issues both professional and personal start to cast a shadow over Creed...
As per usual, we'll start with the utmost positive; the cinematography on this film is outstanding! Ryan Coogler really does an amazing job of creating something visually different for a fight movie. From long tracking shots to quick montage sequences, everything looks different yet retains a classic fight movie feel. The highlight moment of the film to me is a boxing match in the middle of the story; Coogler makes this entire fight, from the locker room out to the ring right through to the closing bell of the match, look like it was shot in one take. The very clever Birdman-esque editing is barely noticeable and as the battle-scars begin to show on the faces of the fighters I have no idea how they did it. It had me on the edge of my seat and the fight choreography in general was completely awesome. Easily the best boxing match I've ever seen in cinema. The inevitable finale fight is beautifully delivered as well; while it wasn't a one-take fight the delivery of the fighting, pep talking between rounds, the choreography, the music, acting and pretty much everything was on point. Tension was all around in the cinema with everyone clearly invested and for good reason. Brilliant stuff.
Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone are fantastic in this film together. Jordan brings a true leading man performance to the screen, his focus is captivating, his physique is imposing and his characters desire is beautifully realised, partially due to fantastic direction from Coogler. Stallone is the best I've ever seen him; after seeing several Rambo and Expendables movies (plus bits and pieces of Rocky films) I can safely say I was not expecting quality from Stallone but surprisingly he seems very at home in more subtle, nuanced acting. His delivery while still a bit grumbly is very genuine and emotional with him acting his heart out in every scene. He is building serious 'best supporting actor' buzz and it's not hard to see why. A fantastic performance but in my humble opinion the tour-de-force that is Michael B. Jordan steals the show. Together with an unbelievably good chemistry they create magic as a movie duo and I could just keep watching them all day.
Any references to past Rocky movies are done with the utmost respect for the franchise and are for the most part very subtle. However this does bring me on to one of my issues with the film: Some of the references to past Rocky films are slightly forced and feel a bit more like pandering to fans. The main problem I have with this is that none of them seem like they needed to be there. One montage moment is dangerously close to the original's classic montage and while it is different in some respects, others are so obvious it can be a bit cringy. A small quibble but still a problem nonetheless.
The primary problem I had with Creed was with the love interest to Adonis, Bianca (Tess Thomson). While the acting was fine and I have no issues with the character herself, the role she played within the story was the problem. She was a well rounded character with emotional weight but Bianca was just plain boring in the context of the story; I had to look up her name online to remember it and considering I didn't have to do that for a name like Adonis, that's not good. She is given qualities and moments that are irrelevant and never serve the story in any way. Overall Bianca just appears to be there so that there's a woman in the film and so she can be at the fight to cheer Creed on when it counts, which is a shame since both the character herself and Thomson's performance of said character were very good. As a result of this a couple of scenes, while good in their own right, could very easily have been taken out in order to speed things along. Had the qualities and moments been made more relevant to the story, Bianca could have been an outstanding side character alongside Stallone and Jordan.
Overall Creed is one of my favourite fight movies; up there with Warrior and The Wrestler, this could potentially be the start of a very high quality spin off film series. Jordan is excellent, Stallone is at his best, the cinematography is phenomenal with my favourite boxing fight ever realised on screen. While it does have problems with one character, this film has real heart with the fights definitely taking a backseat to the characters and the storyline. You know a fighting film is done right when the story itself would still be good if you took the fights out of it. A definite knockout win for this one.