Wow

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2016)

When I first heard a new Rocky film was in production I thought to myself "Man, do we really need ANOTHER Rocky flick?". And the answer to that is no. This movie was thoroughly unnecessary. That being said, Creed is great. It is in fact so good, it actually justifies its own existence.
I am a huge fan of the Rocky franchise, the Rocky movies are films that I grew up watching. I've seen 1-4 probably a million times, those are the movies that actually inspired me to start working out. I don't like 5 and Rocky Balboa was OK. I would have never thought another good thing would come out of this franchise, so when I started reading and watching very, extreme positive reviews to this, I was shocked. I had to see it for myself. Now, even as a huge fan of the series, I have to admit, I think the only really good film, from a critical standpoint is the original Rocky. As a matter of fact, Rocky 4 is one of the dumbest movies ever. But I still love it and it's the one I've seen most times, probably. Well that has changed, because Creed is a great film, as well.
This movie does such a great job at trying to recapture the feel of the original Rocky film, which was not really about boxing, but about the characters, an underdog stepping up to fight the champ. That's the main theme in this movie, too. Not saying the fights in this movie aren't great, though, cause they were. This may come off as bold, but the fights in this movie are the most brutal in the entire series. Every punch feels real, I constantly found myself saying "ouch" while sitting in the theater. The first fight of Adonis, the main character is wonderfully shot. The entire fight is just one, continuous long shot and was expertly directed. The movie is slow paced and it's really a drama that takes itself seriously, like the original film.
Performance-wise, Michael B. Jordan was great as Apollo Creed's son in the film, but we have to talk about Sylvester Stallone. Wow, just wow. Stallone's performance is amazing, he really impressed me and what captivated me the most about him is that it felt heartfelt, it really seemed like this is a character he was invested in and because of his performance, I nearly cried during a few scenes in the movie.
I loved the score of the film as well. It does a great job of taking fragments of the classic, iconic Rocky songs and making them original, I loved it. I have one flaw with the movie and it's that they introduce a character, who serves purely as a love interest for Adonis and for me it was pretty clear that they just had her in the movie as a manipulative device for the audience to care more about the main character, but it really didn't work for and it actually took me out of the movie. Luckily, she does not have that many important scenes or anything so it's a minor thing. I do think they could have cut her out of the film entirely and it wouldn't have affected it in any way possible.
Besides that, I loved pretty much everything in Creed! It's a great surprise to see a movie like this. In an age of reboots and remakes, which many exist just to make a crapload of money, regardless of content, it's so amazingly refreshing to see a movie like this, which actually takes its time and cares about quality. Creed respects the original film, but at the same time creates its own legacy. A very good film.
9.5/10