A great up to date addition to the saga

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2015)

Mary Anne Creed adopts his husband's son from another woman, Adonis Johnson. Years later Adonis yearns to follow his father's footsteps, fighting small arenas and quitting his job. He goes to his father's old training camp Delphi Gym, challenging the fighters there for his car until he gets defeated by a pro boxer Dan Wheeler. He moves to Philadelphia, tracking Rocky Balboa. He asks Rocky to train him. Adonis asks who won Rocky and Apollo's third unofficial fight, which only few people know. Adonis sees news about the undefeated boxing champion Ricky Conlan who is about to fight Wheeler. But it gets cancelled due to Conlan punching Wheeler. Adonis meets his neighbor Bianca. Later Adonis visits Rocky's old gym at Mick's but he doesn't get any attention. Adonis and Bianca get closer. After visiting Paulie and Adrien's graves, Rocky decides to train Adonis, taking him into his house. Soon the manager at Mick's, Pete, proposes a fight between Adonis and his son Leo.
Rocky takes Adonis to Front St. Gym so they can train at different gyms than the opponent. On the fight, Adonis takes hard hits but he can knock Leo out in the third round. news spread about Adonis's lineage. Conlan's trainer meets Rocky and Adonis, proposing a fight between the fighters, to which they agree. But as they continue training, Rocky collapses. He has Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. Adonis eventually finds out about this and demands Rocky to go on chemotherapy. Rocky refuses, saying that it didn't help Adrien when it hit her. Adonis gets into a fight as he dislikes people calling him 'Baby Creed". Rocky bails him out. Rocky eventually takes therapy as he and Adonis make a deal that he will undergo therapy and Adonis will continue training. Adonis gains more local support as he continues training. Adonis, Rocky and their team fly to Liverpool for the fight. On the press conference Adonis and Conlan almost get into a fight due to Conlan calling him a fake Creed.
Before the fight Adonis receives Mary Anne's gift, trunks with Apollo Creed's original colors of the stars and stripes. As the fight commences, Conlan easily owns the first round, cutting above Adonis' right eye. Later Adnis retaliates, cutting Conlan's left cheek bone. They both trade hits through the rounds. AT round 11 Conlan knocks Adonis down, but he gets up again. As the round finishes the doctor examines Adonis shut out left eye, but his team aids him secretly. Round 12 sees brutal hits trading and Adonis knocks Conlan down but he also gets up again. Conlan wins the fight with a split decision but Conlan acknowledges Adonis Creed. As Adonis gets interviewed, he admits Rocky as a family and states he understands what his father did.
The movie sets a great new development to the whole Rocky saga. I am part of those people who as a child grew up watching re-runs of Rocky i through IV on TV. They do it quite often when I was a little kid so those movies stayed with me. They were some of the movies which helped me learn enjoy the more dramatic movies.
The story in this movie feels so unique. It succeeded in merging the feels gotten from the old Rocky saga and the more contemporary feel of modern pop cinema. All the movie's aspects are comprised of these two aspects. You can see reminisces of the first Rocky movie from the remakes of some of the iconic shots like the gray sweatshirt running scene, the student-mentor conflict between Adonis and Rocky just like Rocky and Mick had, and most of all are the blunt references here and there to the old saga materials like the message on Adonis' training shirt.
But the director Ryan Coogler did a great job in keeping the movie relatable to the contemporary generation by having the same feel on the non-sports drama like what Fruitvale Station had. The drama with Bianca feels adequately intimate and close without having to be sexually suggestive.
Seeing that Sylvester Stallone gave a go ahead on this movie, I think it'll be a great start for the saga's new focus, all done without leaving the character Rocky behind. Further I think it'll great if the sequels for this can also revive the other old beaten characters like Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago; and even get in sync with the current situation in the real boxing world where we have also many renowned Latin American boxers.
I also like how the movie adds something great to the saga technically as there are two long uncut scenes shot amazingly in close-up ranges. One of them is even a great full two rounds of boxing.
The acting overall is adequately good. Michael B. Jordan did well in portraying the son who long for a father figure. Sylvester Stallone did great in adding a new stuff into the character Rocky as he faces illness. Tessa Thompson succeeded in elevating her role as not just the love interest. I think it'll be great if she can be Adonis' Adrien.
I give Creed (2015) a score of 7 out of 10, and a recommendation surely. Especially for those who, like me, enjoyed the Rocky saga over the years, This movie nicely adds to all that without losing it's grip on the old stories and staying up to date contemporarily.