Creed

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2015)

When I first saw the trailer for Creed, back in the Summer, I thought to myself that it was a very impressive trailer and judging by the trailer alone, that the film itself could be fantastic if they did the film right, which judging by the trailers, it looks like they did. This is one case where you had an excellent trailer to a film and the film completely lived up to it's expectations in each and every way. I wouldn't personally consider myself a fan, or very knowledgeable about the Rocky Balboa films. The only film in the series I have seen (up till now) was the original Rocky, which came out in 1976 and won the Oscar for Best Picture for that year. I really enjoyed that film a lot, but I never did seek out any of the sequels until this recent release of Creed. I think one of the reasons I did choose to see Creed, was because it did follow the Rocky films in a sense, but in another way it completely became it's own movie as well. I will explain more as we move along in this review. The film has a gritty and urban setting which the original Rocky did as well and I found it worked well in the original film as does it here as well. It further helps to show the background and environments that the characters come from and what they live and experience on a day to day basis. These are characters who were not handed everything in life, but had to go through difficult times and situations and built themselves out of their environments and the setbacks that they had to deal with to make names for themselves and not only providing themselves with a means of living, but functioning and surviving in a world that proves to be tough even after you have made it. I don't want to give too much away about the characters as not to spoil anything about the film, but I found that giving the film a new perspective and a new hero to follow was a much needed and welcome plot device. Rocky, played here again by Sylvester Stallone, is still here, but this time he takes more of a supporting role and we really get to see Michael B. Jordan, shine here as our new boxer and hero who we root for during the film. Rocky, is still very much an important part to this story and again without giving anything away, we root for Rocky during this film too. Here he plays an older and wiser type of figure who trains and guides along Jordan's character. Stallone here gives what I think personally is the performance of his career. He really downplays the character and plays him very straightforward yet relaxed and the performance feels and plays out so naturally, but there is also a lot of heart, wisdom and backstory to the character that he is fascinating to watch (as is Jordan's character) and yet we love him and respect him for who he is and everything he has accomplished as well. I hope Stallone is nominated for an Oscar for his role here and I would be a very happy man if he even won the award for the performance. It's that subtle yet excellent at the same time. The film's cinematography at times gives it a raw and almost documentary like quality which suits the film well because of the areas of town and the different backgrounds to the characters and the whole urban backdrop to the story which works so well here. This is a film with excellent character study and acting from the entire cast, but it also works well as a sports movie and has intense boxing scenes and yet you are completely drawn into them and rooting for our hero all the same. People say that Mad Max: Fury Road was the comeback series of the year, but I would argue wholeheartedly that Creed, not only reinvents the Rocky films, but it makes one great stand alone film as itself as well. This is the type of film where you root for the characters and end up cheering for them all in the end. Creed has heart, action, entertainment and is one of the most crowd pleasing movies of the year, but also one of the most brilliantly done and I would put it in my top list of best films of the year. A real breakout achievement as a film for Rocky fans and everyone else too.