It Has Little But Nostalgia Going For It

Rating: 3/10 (8 March 2016)

Boxers over the years have had a notoriously hard time figuring out when it's time to hang up the gloves and quit. They keep coming back, and it gets to the point of being pathetic as you watch once magnificent fighters fade away into shadows of what they were. Think Muhammad Ali. Or Larry Holmes. Or Sugar Ray Leonard. Or Evander Holyfield. All once great fighters who just couldn't let it go. Sylvester Stallone is, of course, an actor and not a boxer. But his most iconic role is Rocky Balboa - a boxer. And as I watched this movie (actually not much more than a few minutes into it) I started to think that Stallone was a little bit like Ali or Holmes or Leonard or Holyfield. He should have just let Rocky go. I rather liked "Rocky Balboa" - what I thought would have been the last film in the series. I thought it was a decent film, and a good way of tying things up. But almost 10 years later, Stallone had to do it again. And the result was Ali-like, or Leonard-like. Etc., etc.
The great thing about the Rocky movies was that you couldn't help but root for Rocky. Whether the movie was good or bad (and the series had both) you always rooted for Rocky. He was everyone's ultimate fantasy - the down and out guy with no prospects who gets to live his dream and makes good at it. But in "Creed" you don't get that. I didn't much care for Adonis Creed - Apollo's son (in a convoluted sort of way that I really didn't understand, probably because I just didn't care enough to keep it straight in my head.) The character didn't resonate with me. Win. Lose. I didn't care. What I couldn't figure out was why Rocky bothered with him. The basic story is that Adonis makes good after a troubled childhood, apparently has a pretty good job that he suddenly quits to become a fighter. (And who, exactly was Phylicia Rashad - who played Apollo's widow - to him anyway? And why did she care all that much?) He searches out Rocky, convinces Rocky to train him - and then everything comes pretty easy for him actually. But the character just didn't resonate with me; I had no feelings for him whatsoever. When you mix that in with a story that seemed to be lacking in direction or flow you end up with a movie that just bores you. And that's what happened to me. I struggled through it (I admit I may have lost the battle and nodded off for 5 or 10 minutes about halfway through, but I can't imagine I missed anything of vital importance) but it wasn't an enjoyable experience.
I know there was a bit of Oscar controversy. Stallone got nominated for Best Supporting Actor. And, in this year when charges of racism were levelled at the Academy, people wanted to know why, if Stallone got nominated, Michael B. Jordan didn't get a Best Actor nomination. Truthfully? Neither should have been nominated, nor should the movie have been, although I heard some folk speculate that it might get a Best Picture nomination - which it didn't. The movie just wasn't that good. The performances weren't that good. Stallone can play Rocky. We know that. And he plays Rocky well. But he's done it so often that nothing here would have stretched him at all. Perhaps more should have been done with Rocky's battle with cancer - but that was never really developed very much. Stallone's nomination was about honouring Stallone, and not about honouring his performance in this particular movie. And Jordan just didn't have whatever it takes to draw me onside with him. Best Actor? Even just a nomination? I don't think so.
I will admit that this movie has nostalgia going for it. Lots and lots of nostalgia. It's as if the producers (and there's too many of them to list!) realized that neither the story nor the characters would be a draw, so they went with nostalgia. "Creed" pays homage to various aspects of previous "Rocky" movies. Adonis is a sort of Rocky-type character. (Please promise me that they're not going to start a series of Creed movies. PLEASE!) Rocky visits the graves of Paulie and Adrian. He gives Adonis the Adrian speech from "Rocky III" - "you have to do this for you!" There's Mickey's gym, and Rocky comes across a bit like Mickey - having Adonis chase chickens around to build up speed. There's lots of nostalgia. But there's not much more worthwhile.