Blistering

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2017)

I'm a huge Stallone fan, he's an misunderstood genius, and it's great to see him back as Rocky, and noble of him to pass on the starring role to Michael B. Jordan and directing duties to Ryan Coogler who was just 29 when the film was released. Creed is a blistering movie and it gets my 8/10.
The characters are excellent, Rocky is at his humble best, Bianca is a credible, street-savvy girlfriend. Tony Bellew as Pretty Ricky Conlan is a superb, intense actor, I'm surprised he's not been in more stuff. Initially I thought Tony Bellew isn't menacing enough as the main opponent but then I saw how giving him a subtle nice-guy quality makes him more engaging and not just a cipher like how Drago from Rocky IV was just a cipher. It's a nice touch when he congratulates Adonis after the fight and informs him that he will be the future champ. Graham McTavish as Conlan's manager is excellent as always, I loved him in Rambo (2008), I think he'd make a great future Bond villain. Tessa Thompson's stage routines as Bianca are very nicely choreographed and provide a sensual contrast to the manly boxing scenes. Other stand- out performances include London actor Ritchi Coaster playing local boxing coach Pete Sporino. Initially I felt Michael B. Jordan in the title role didn't have enough attitude to play this iconic character. He seems to jump from a sadistic, violent child in the correctional facility to a mild-mannered investment broker or whatever that job is supposed to be. Prior to watching the film I was expecting the son of Apollo Creed to be the ultimate badass and I was expecting the film to be an epic emotional journey of how a broken child discovers his roots, finds his path, beats the odds and becomes a hero of the people. We kind of got that, just the safe, predictable, watered-down 2015 version of it. Gimme the 1976 version any day! As the film progressed I adjusted to the unexpected soft tone and became drawn- in by Jordan's emotive, considered performance, however Dolph Lundgren or Mr. T would have woken me up a bit!
Ryan Coogler's direction is reliable and by-the-book. The tone is always well measured and great attention is paid to the emotional integrity of a scene. Maryse Alberti's cinematography is crisp with the cold, early-morning shots of Philadelphia and the gritty shots of urban nightlife looking very nice. The city feels very contemporary, whereas the Philadelphia of the original Rocky film of 1976 belongs to Stallone, the Philadelphia of Creed belongs very much to Michael B. Jordan. There are some lovely stand-out scenes: the row between Adonis and Bianca's MC at the club is expertly managed. The romance between Adonis and Bianca is sweet and plausible but far too tame for my book - I guess we have to cope with current trends somehow. The scene where Rocky reads the newspaper by the gravesides of Adrian and Paulie is poignant. There's a bit where they all fall asleep while watching Skyfall that I thought was hilarious. Freeze-framing different fighters and displaying a graphics read-out of the fighter's credentials is a novel touch and succeeds in not becoming too Guy Ritchie. Tricky moments are handled well, like when, on a couple of occasions, the classic Rocky music swells up, music that's not meant for Creed but nevertheless seems to capture the overall spirit of the film's message - which is you must fight for what you believe in.
The moment where Adonis gets knocked out and has flashbacks is done beautifully, with clever use of sound editing, although there could have been more flashbacks of Carl Weathers - and what would have been ultra-cool is at least a glimpse of Drago, who was after all the catalyst behind all of Adonis' issues.
I have a handful of minor criticisms and here they are: Bianca's hearing loss seems an affliction too far. It was like everyone else has an affliction – Rocky with his cancer, Adonis with his father issues, Ricky Conlan's troubles with the law – what can we do with singer Bianca? – hey let's give her progressive hearing loss, that's that box ticked! Background characters need to be fleshed out more thoroughly, like Stitch and the other members of the training team - like how Mickey, Paulie and Adrian were fleshed out in the originals. What was happening with the shorts? Did it say "Johnson" on one side and "Creed" on the other or did I imagine that? Surely making the decisive choice of his name as a fighter should be a clear motive – including both names on the shorts seems majorly half-baked. It should be one or the other. Adonis' rich step-mom seemed totally out-of-place in the movie. Why didn't she intervene in getting him out of the brutal correctional facility when he was a kid sooner? If she had done that he might not have wanted to become a boxer which is what she didn't want him to do. She seemed to be in the movie only for exposition reasons. There isn't much character development; by the end of the film everybody is pretty much the same as they were at the start. Also there's not much variety between the characters; everybody is the same nonchalant, shrugging victim of tough lives.
It will be interesting to see what direction they take with the sequel and how they replace Rocky, Adrian, Paulie and Mickey with a new boxing family. And hopefully in the next one Adonis will get to drink the raw eggs.