Good but a missed opportunity at excellence.

Rating: 6/10 (4 December 2018)

I've been a massive fan of the Rocky franchise all my life. The end of Rocky 1 still brings me to tears. Just watched it again the other week.
Whilst Creed 1 was a great continuation of the Rocky franchise I reckon Creed 2 is barely as good as Rocky 5 in my opinion.
The movie leaves far too many things lingering along (child / marriage) for no reason and then does things in a similar fashion as Rocky 4 for no reason (second fight in Moscow - why? Why not Las Vegas as THAT would have been the best homage to Creed's dad). It seems the movie is sometimes confused between what happened between Creed and Drago and what happened with Rocky and Drago. Thus the revenge thing just makes no sense.
Once again we get a movie in a Hollywood franchise that throws out the story telling conventions that have worked since the 70s for no reason (As Star Wars 8 did - no time jump there). Creed 2 should have began with the end of Creed 1 fight + success montage leading into championship win and then end in the ring. Absolutely no reason why it couldn't have been done that way. Instead it feels like messy screenplay. Fixing that wouldn't have changed the story one bit.
I also didn't like the desert camp thing. Felt very unlike Rocky / Mickey training routines.
Shame, the tools were all there. I personally would have split it into two movies for year between back to back release as then Creed could have been a finished trilogy. Empire Strikes Back / Infinity War shows audiences are accepting of a negative cliffhanger. Heck even Back to the Future 2 does that well.
Bring back the classic trilogy hero's journey in movies:
1) Introduction of characters with stakes clearly shown, ties things up somewhat but leaves us with opportunity for more
2) Main character revels in success of part 1 perhaps but is soon brought down to earth. He isn't ready to overcome the biggest trial. He reaches absolute lowest point of his journey by the end. In Creed 2 this could have been the first Drago defeat and Rocky not being there. Only for this to be reversed in the sequel after some gut wrenching training and fixing of a broken body.
3) Return of the hero, overcoming the greatest trial and restoring peace.