"Creed" delivers a knockout punch!

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2015)

This film is fantastic! I did not expect some of the twists and turns at all...such as Rocky being diagnosed with lymphoma cancer or Paulie dying (on that note, Burt Young, who played Paulie, does not have any screen time). Stallone is always great as Rocky, but Michael B. Jordan really did a great job as Apollo Creed's son, Adonis Johnson-Creed too.
"Creed" finds Adonis Johnson-Creed, son of the late Apollo Creed, yearning to have the now retired Rocky Balboa act as his trainer for an upcoming boxing match in Liverpool England, where he will face "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, who is a British fighter and current world light heavyweight champion...all of this despite his mother, Mary-Anne (played brilliantly by Phylicia Rashad) advising against this career move (before Adonis was a boxer, he had a job at a local agency, and was even promoted, but quit because the line of work just "wasn't for" him.
At first, Rocky is hesitant to agree to Adonis' request, but eventually gives in and even has Adonis move in with him, a place in itself where they train even harder using most, if not all of Rocky's methods and equipment.
Beforehand, Adonis meets a singer-songwriter at his apartment named Bianca, who is also his love interest throughout the film. Things with Adonis' training go along as planned, when suddenly, Rocky collapses at the training facility. He is rushed to the hospital and it is revealed that Rocky has a type of lymphoma cancer, that was fortunately caught early enough to the point where it is treatable through chemotherapy. Reluctant to go through with the procedure, Rocky explains to the doctor that his deceased wife, Adrian, had to go through the same procedure and didn't make it. The doctor tells him to at least take the treatment literature and think about it. Adonis ends up stumbling on this literature when he finds it in Rocky's coat pocket and tells him to go through with it before it is too late...telling him that if he (Adonis) can fight, then Rocky can too. Rocky agrees and Adonis even trains beside Rocky as he is in the hospital receiving his chemotherapy. Reluctant to go by the name "Creed" over "Johnson" during his first big match ("Johnson" is his mother's maiden name) Adonis eventually agrees to go by "Creed."
Despite his chemotherapy treatment, Rocky presses on with Adonis and they both make it to Liverpool for the big match against Conlan. Before the match, however, Adonis receives a gift from his mother. It is a pair of American flag themed shorts (similar to the design of Rocky and Apollo's boxing shorts) with the names "Creed" and "Johnson" stamped on both sides. It should be noted, however, that Adonis' mother, Mary Anne, actually appears to have more of an estranged relationship with him as, in the beginning of the film, she came across her own son in 1998 when she came back for him after he got into a fight with a couple of minors in juvenile hall. She confessed to him that she was, indeed, his mother and that she was aware that he never actually got to meet or know his father, Apollo, due to the fact that he died before he was actually born.
If not a bit nervous, Adonis, otherwise known as "Donnie" Johnson-Creed, steps out onto the ring and goes an incredible 12 rounds with "Pretty" Ricky Conlan. Conlan actually ends up winning the match, but it is Adonis Johnson-Creed who the crowd actually cheers for. After the match, Conlan tells Creed that he is the future of the light heavyweight division. The film ends with a slowed down Rocky Balboa climbing the famous "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with Adonis. Rocky then jokes that it feels like "they added more steps"...most likely as a nod to his advanced age and his character's chemotherapy treatments.
In summary, this film is a great addition to a legendary and well respected series and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the "Rocky" series...and to those that aren't, too!