Stallone's screen legacy really sell this one...

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2016)

In my review of Grudge Match, I mentioned how the filmmakers effectively mined the history the characters created in the past to strengthen a contemporary story. This concept works to even greater extent in 2015's Creed, an elaborately directed drama which specifically mines the legacy of the Rocky franchise but from a different direction and comes up with gold, respecting the legacy being saluted and keeping the legacy untarnished but utilizing it for creating a credible story.
This film introduces us to Adonis Johnson, who turns out to be the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, a young man full of anger and apparently full of passion for the sport of boxing, which has him leaving a very cushy life in Los Angeles to move to Philadelphia in order to seek out his father's former nemesis, Rocky Balboa, so that he can train him. Adonis has been using his mother's name because he wanted to make it in the ring without trading on his father's name and, ironically, when he gets a shot at exactly what he wants, that is exactly what he has to do.
This multi-layered story has so much going on that at times it's hard to drink it all in and I found myself literally having to let certain things go and keep my eye on the prize, which is a compelling second generation story that once it grabs the viewer with its on target respect for the Rocky legend, grabs us almost immediately and never lets go.
It's really lovely as we watch Rocky and Adonis enter Mickey's old gym and as we watch Rocky use a lot of the training techniques on Adonis that Micky used on him...I have to admit I was a little disappointed that Rocky and Adonis didn't visit a meat locker but I guess that was covered in Grudge Match.
What I liked about Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington's slightly padded screenplay is that it provides a new character for us to get behind connected to a proved legend, but unlike Rocky Balboa and Grudge Match, this story respects the fact that Rocky Balboa is no longer a kid and has no business stepping into the ring, instead he is in the corner of a young man with whom a connection inspires him to share his experience. The padding comes in the form of an underdeveloped romance for Johnson which just slows the film down.
Coogler as director also managed to pull a star-making performance from Michael B. Jordan in the title role and a powerhouse performance from Sylvester Stallone that restores the dignity the character was stripped of in Rocky Balboa and earned the actor a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Phylicia Rashad even demands attention in her brief role as Adonis' mother, but this is really Stallone's show...a fitting last hurrah for the character he created some 40 years ago