An entertaining watch, but not anything particularly special

Rating: 6/10 (11 December 2015)

If I had to name the biggest and most prevailing issue with Creed, it would be that the movie saves all of its "sucker punch" moments (so to speak) til the third act, and because of that, the first two acts feel overwhelmingly uninspired.
While there are things about the entire movie which are technically solid, for example the performances by all the actors were extremely put together and consistent, the lack of anything special cinematography-wise in the first 2/3rds of the movie made it ultimately a primarily visually uninspired watch.
The second act birthed forth every contrived plot device ever conceived in film and all packed into about 20-25 minutes worth of screen time. The most painful of these involves the singular female character whose entire purpose plot-wise seems to be to be Adonis Creed's girlfriend and supporter. For the sake of not spoiling anything, I'll leave it there, but those who have seen the movie know the parts I'm talking about.
That said, both the very beginning and last third of the movie are very solid visually and editing wise. The opening scene and fight scene boast extremely crisp editing, and the final fight scene is shot in such a way that it remains suspenseful throughout the entire duration rather than relying on the dreaded jump-cut to communicate that Fight Things Are Happening.
The end also has some nice musical bits, but as far as the soundtrack goes, that's about the extent of the notable moments.
Overall, I can see why someone would be very impressed with this movie if they perhaps walked in late, were caught up to the plot by a friend outside, and only caught the last act. But as a whole, the movie is not particularly impressive. The movie is relatively entertaining and save for some moments in the middle, mostly refrains from being boring. Give it a watch if you have nothing better to do, or if you just really want to see a somewhat satisfying resolution to the Rocky franchise.