Dull, Warmed Over Sentiment in an Obvious, Paint by Numbers Film

Rating: 3/10 (17 May 2016)

The most damning evidence that Hollywood dismisses films predominantly featuring minorities is not that "Creed" was mostly overlooked at the 2015 Academy Awards but that it was one of the only examples of minority films made that year that people could dig up to make their point. If "Creed" is the best they could do, then there really is a problem in Hollywood, but the problem isn't that the Academy doesn't nominate black artists -- it's that there aren't enough good movies made by black artists to nominate.
"Creed" is one of the most pedestrian, obvious, and dull movies I've seen in a long time. Not a single thing about it deserved to be nominated for an Oscar, though ironically Sylvester Stallone, who was nominated and drew the ire of Oscars So White protesters for the Academy's gall in giving the film's sole nomination to the only white person in it, is the best thing about it. The film is so by the numbers that I only half-way paid attention to it starting at the half-way point and still called the maudlin ending from a mile away. You don't spend 2 hours shoving a "will he or won't he live up to the legacy of his father" story down our throats unless you intend for the film to answer that question with a resounding "yes" in its last moments.
To be fair, I was never really that into the Rocky movies, so maybe I just wasn't the target audience. But I do remember the first "Rocky" enough to know that its underdog story, while still pushing all the requisite emotional buttons, felt genuinely inspiring, while "Creed" feels like warmed over sentiment sprinkled with a dusting of nostalgia for the Rocky series.
Needless to say, not exactly a knockout.
Grade: C-