A continuation of the Rocky legacy yet a movie that could easily stand alone

Rating: 9/10 (7 December 2015)

A continuation of the Rocky legacy yet a movie that could easily stand alone, Creed is excellent, a movie I'd probably put in the top two of the Rocky series. The fight sequences are A-plus, shown largely through tracking shots that puts the audience right in the center of the action, which makes the boxing come off more realistically than ever before in a Rocky film. And while this is essentially a boxing movie, it is more character driven than driven by action, with the three main characters, Adonis, Bianca, and Rocky taking center stage over what is going on in the ring.
Michael B. Jordan is terrific as the young Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of the legendary Apollo Creed, who tries to make a name for himself apart from his famous father. It shows him as a young boy in juvenile lockup, getting into fights with other boys and getting his fair share of bruises, while bruising others. Adonis, it is fair to say, is a born fighter. His downstairs neighbor, Bianca, played by Tessa Thompson, serves as an effective counterpart to Adonis' drive in the ring, as she is trying to make a name for herself as a musician before time runs out. Their willingness to do whatever it takes to do the things that define them also brings them together.
Meanwhile, Rocky has tried to live his life largely away from the spotlight, and the ring, since his last fight (in the Rocky Balboa film). But in this movie universe where Rocky is a famous ex-champion, it is hard to stay completely out of the spotlight. And when he decides to train Adonis for the big time, it seems that Adonis cannot escape his famous father. But does he really have to? That this question is explored at all showed that this film did not simply try to cash in on a legacy, but develop it.
Not to take anything away from Stallone's achievements in the past movies, but I really feel that one of the strengths of this movie was his ability to cede the center stage to his younger co-stars. It is not all about Rocky anymore, and at this point in his (and Stallone's) career, it shouldn't be. Here, we are given a new character to root for who has his role in the Rocky universe. There are callbacks to previous movies, but even with those callbacks Creed still comes off as fresh.
If the Rocky series is about anything, it is about being true to what you are, and for hanging in there, getting back up when life beats you down. In that respect, Creed holds up very well.