A whole host of flaws can be found here, but as a whole it isn't bad enough to be rendered unwatchable

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2018)

Adonis Johnson (Michael B Jordan) isn't happy with his desk job and decides to quit and follow in his dad's footsteps (the late Apollo Creed) with the ultimate dream of becoming World Boxing Champion. However, this decision is met with some scepticism from his biological mother and the man whom Johnson wants to act as his trainer and mentor the legendary Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). After some persuasion, Balboa agrees to train Johnson which eventually garners the attention of undefeated champion Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew) and his manager Tommy Holiday (Graham McTavish). The stage then becomes set for 2 of the best to fight it out in a 12 round match, but who will end up victorious?
I usually try and judge each film I see on its own merits and don't like to jump on the bandwagon and bash a film just because it's 'unoriginal and unnecessary' but at the same time with Creed it's very difficult not to approach reviewing it from this angle based on the fact that it does come across a lot like a patchwork quilt of other Rocky films.
Director and screenwriter Ryan Coogler has clearly tried to take this film back to its roots and presumably give it a look and feel of the original Rocky. This is a brave move when you consider that the same person who directed the original Rocky wasn't able to get this right when he tried to do this in Rocky V - Creed isn't as bad as Rocky V so perhaps Coogler has learned from some of Avildsen's mistakes.
I think one of the main issues with Creed lies with its protagonist Adonis Johnson; the thing that made the original Rocky film work is that Balboa was humble and likeable and given the fact that he came from nothing and worked his way to the top made his journey heart-warming and meant that Rocky was an endearing character. Johnson has none of these qualities; he's got a good job, he lives well and at times he comes across as being a bit brattish and obnoxious. Don't get me wrong I didn't expect him to be exactly like Balboa, but for me he should have been somewhere in the middle. Some may argue that he's Creed's son and that he's a chip off the old block - yes Apollo Creed was unlikeable, but he was the villain in the first 2 films and even when he was one of the good guys in Rocky 3 and 4 he still had a sort of flamboyant swagger about him which made him fun to watch. Michael B Jordan is a reasonably good actor, but at times he's a little flat here and doesn't seem to have much energy or zip about him.
Another issue lies with the general narrative itself; it's all over the place - characters are introduced briefly and then disappear for long periods of time and then other characters are introduced for no real reason (such as the character of Wheeler). Coogler also takes far too long to set the story up and considering that Johnson ends up fighting in what can be described as 'the fight of his life' the training sessions are limited and once again feel very reminiscent of one's that we've seen over the years in the Rocky franchise. Another narrative weakness lies with Johnson's childhood like how and why he ended up in a detention centre? Why his biological mother turned up out of the blue after what 13 years? Where was she the rest of the time and more to the point where was he? Perhaps some of these questions will get addressed in the sequel, but it still seems very lazy to leave so much unaddressed. I pointed out earlier that Rocky's working class roots were one of his most endearing qualities and during the press conference we learn that Conlan followed the same journey as Rocky to get to where he has got to. This left me confused because I then found myself respecting and admiring the villain more than the protagonist which I assume was not the intention here.
The final problem with Creed is it's lack of heart and as I've mentioned earlier this does not have the same heart-warming, emotional journey that the original Rocky had and at times parts of the narrative feel a little forced.
Still despite all of my objections, I didn't think this film was too bad; some of the fight sequences were OK, but the final fight was really good with a gritty intensity reminiscent of some of the earlier Rocky films. I had issues with Creed JR as a character and whilst I felt that Jordan underplayed too much at times he was still good at other times - although the majority of these good occasions occurred when he was fighting. Stallone has nothing to prove now (essentially now taking on the Mighty Mickey role) and basically gets out of Jordan's way and leaves Jordan to put his own stamp on the film, but he isn't able to do this consistently enough to make this worthy of much more than a mediocre score.