A passing of the baton from Balboa to Creed

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2015)

Creed is a film that from the trailers can be looked at as a continuation of the Rocky franchise, but it is actually more of a 'Rebirth' for the franchise and a passing of the baton in a way. My experience with the Rocky franchise is limited to half of the first film and bits and pieces of iconic moments and characters, but missing out on the previous Rocky films will not harm your experience with this film. This is definitely not a 'Rocky movie', it definitely stands on its own and the main focus of the film is Adonis Creed. Of course, being in the same universe and featuring the series' main protagonist does lead to many callbacks to the other Rocky films. Now i didn't know the significance of every reference, but i knew enough to know when they were referring to a past event. But these callbacks (apart from the obvious) are not crucial to the plot and really are just there for die hard fans of the series.
The main focus of this film was the journey of Adonis Creed and his rise to hopefully live up to the legacy set by his father with help from Rocky Balboa himself. The story, this journey was incredible to see. There were not too many BIG moments in the film but it really didn't need any because this whole film was a progressive sequence of events that were building up intensity to a big finale. There were many intense training montages and very interesting and emotional storytelling sequences that all tie together the events of the film really really well. There was never a dull moment in its 2 hour runtime and i was glued to the screen and really interested in Adonis' story. He is a very strong minded, likable and determined character who you really get behind and want him to succeed in every way. Michael B Jordan definitely redeemed himself for that Fant4stic disaster that wasn't necessarily his fault, but at least it can't be held against him now. He embodied the role and you really bought his character, wasn't over the top in any way and played a very grounded, realistic character. He conveyed emotion and determination very well and managed to eclipse the presence of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa at times.
Having Rocky Balboa in the film and being a mentor and coach for Adonis was a really great aspect of the film that worked in every way. This could have easily been a very forced element where they just threw Rocky in a few scenes occasionally to make sure people know "Hey come see this film because...... Rocky". But he really was an integral part of the film and contributed to the plot, bought a slight tad of humour to lighten the mood occasionally and also really emphasis the emotional weight of some of the films key moments. Sylvester Stallone was great in the role, i can't speak for whether it compares to the other Rocky films but you could see that he was a very experienced boxer who has definitely been through a lot in his life. If anything, this film made me WANT to go and see the other Rocky films because even seeing him at this stage in his life was fascinating and i wanted to know more about the character. But despite the big name and the fact that he is so loved by film fans, he did play second fiddle to Michael B Jordan, and i don't think anyone should be mad about that.
There was also one incredible moment in the film that was made even more amazing by the camera-work in this scene. There was a fight that was filmed so amazingly i was mesmerised and totally sucked into the scene. The entire fight was filmed with one continuous tracking shot that takes you all around the ring and made you feel like you were literally in the ring with these fighter, truly incredible film work right there.
In the end, this was an incredible Boxing film, one of the best if not the best that i have ever seen that if you are a fan of the genre you should definitely see. Fans of the Rocky franchise will love this film for it's callbacks to the other films but as it is a passing of the baton per se, even if you are unfamiliar with the previous films it doesn't lessen the amazing experience you will have with this film. - 9.1