An Honest Review

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2019)

I don't want to give this a bad score, because it is a very solid film. And all the acting is very good. I just have an issue with how the title character was written
Michael B. Jordan's Adonis came off as a little too sincere without the surface flash of Carl Weathers or the working man grit of Sly's Rocky. He was a little too motivated to fight which set him apart from Rocky and not cocky enough in the fight to be close to Apollo, which left him a little too milk-toast and middle of the road for a character in a leading role.
And that issue I blame on the writing and not Jordan's performance (who did a decent enough job playing the flat middle-of-the road boxer).
Had he gone a little more to the Apollo side and been flash and brass on the surface with depth beneath, it would have been better, or had he gone more Stallone and done the working class grit and determination thing it would have worked a little better, or a combination of the two.. or even just been more of an prig. Something, anything to get his character a little unbalanced in any direction and it would have been a great film.
But I can understand where it was hard trying to balance the new Creed between two stellar past performances without making him feel like a clone of either Stallone or Weathers.
And Jordan did sell the physicality.
Plus, Rocky himself had a new struggle to face down and take the hits from even without being in the ring, which was of course great.
Not to mention, that you got to see Jordan's Creed struggle and fight and take one something a little out of his pay grade with grit and determination and raw humanity. You got to see the new Creed not back down, and that was just as inspiring as any other Rocky movie.
It was a great movie that was competently acted by all involved, and it had the same style of script and the same core message that you would expect from a Rocky film.
It was an excellent movie and an excellent movie in an era that has a shortage of great films. Praise should be given all around.
I just hope that in Creed II, we get to see Jordan have a little more depth to his character, a few more flaws, something to make him more memorable and stand out against Stallone and Weathers. He's a good enough actor to do it, he just doesn't have a script that gives him the little something that makes him as memorable as Rocky and Apollo.