The boxing action is solid, and the performances strong, but too much is soapy, and better opportunities are missed

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2019)

In terms of the franchise, this is I think "Rocky 8" or something like that, so I didn't come to it expecting it to be fresh and original. I expected it to produce good fights, with growing tension, and a big payoff - and for it to do enough around that with the drama to support my investment in the characters. Broadly, the film does this, but it doesn't do it well - only 'okay'.
In terms of the boxing scenes, I was surprised by how they didn't replicate the best of the franchise, and some felt surprisingly flat and lacking in build/tension. They are professionally done, and they have the elements they needed, but I didn't feel the drama or the rush of the conclusion like I have with previous films, and with some real fights. This feeling of it being a lesser copy of something better rings true in the rest of the film too; the training sequences, the personal dramas - they all feel very obvious and lacking a spark, much like a faded copy. In the drama the reference points of proposals, births, personal struggles etc are fairly generically written, but my biggest issue is that the writing squanders a lot of better stuff to give time to these elements. Specifically I mean the struggle of the Drago's as men, and as father/son; the anger, resentment, longing, and missed life in both of them is right there, and when we have time with them it is very well delivered - but far too little. Instead we get direct dialogue between characters, people talking to graves etc - material used before and nothing much added by it. I'm not suggesting the film branches out to explore the Russian characters, but certainly there was more to be had here.
For the rest, it all benefits from a strong cast. Stallone does his usual stuff to good effect, but Jordan makes way more of the material than is on the page. Thompson doesn't do as well but to be fair she is poorly served. I was impressed by Lundgren and Munteanu, in particular how much the latter did with so little. Okay they are not the most complex characters but with a lot of body language and face work they show years of pain and anger, the impact on them as people, and on them as father/son; like I said, I really wanted more on this. Behind the camera I wondered what had changed, and the lack of Coogler seems the most obvious; I did not know the name of director Caple Jnr, and there doesn't seem to be much on his resume to suggest that will change, or that he would have done anything with Creed II other than a workmanlike job.
The film produces enough of the cliché to provide some entertainment value there, but at the same time it does little more than this. The drama is soapy but at the same time much more interesting material is left to small touches, and the boxing action is professionally done, but doesn't have the drama and building tension of the best of the franchise.