This is a solid film.

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2019)

Creed II is a very solid film. It does feel like it peaks a little too early in a few places. Creed becomes the Champ in the first scene he's in and the first Drago fight comes in before the halfway point. The reasons are logical and they serve the story. You just have to trust the movie to be what it will be. It also feels like Stallone is passing the torch of the series to Creed this time. Stallone recently stated that he's retiring the Rocky character. The fight scenes are very well choreographed. The performances are very good, especially Michael B. Jordan, who I'm looking forward to seeing how his career progresses. There's great shots of the city of Philadelphia and the music is its own with the classic Rocky feel in the right places.
You have to believe in yourself. This is a constant theme in every Rocky movie but this is more evident in this film than all the others. Adonis Creed has everything going for him in the beginning. He has fully recovered from the loss in the last film and becomes the champion of the world and now can start his own legacy. Creed is at his highest level of confidence and all is going is way. He's starting his legacy in the ring and is about to start his own family outside of the ring. This doesn't get tested until the first fight with Drago. He is beaten severely and only retains his title due to a disqualification. Creed was hellbent on avenging his father's legacy that he focused on everything but himself. It isn't until he becomes a father that he starts to believe in himself again because he has to for the sake of his family.
An interesting point is that, unlike the last couple of Rocky films where there isn't a villian like character, the Dragos represent hate, spite and malignant narcissism. Especially with Ludmilla Drago (A cameo by Brigitte Nielsen interestingly enough) abandoning her son Viktor when it's clear he is about to lose the fight. Ivan Drago does gain a little humanity back by throwing in the towel to save his son from further injury. Despite his bitterness, through it all, he loves his son. I only wonder how Stallone, as the main screenwriter, was going to handle the bond between Rocky and Robert in light of his own son's passing. It's a bittersweet scene and those tears at the end may have been as much about Sage as serving the scene. You never know in Hollywood, but Rocky going inside his son's home to be a part of a family again is a good way to end the Rocky story arc as he is not alone anymore.
This film is also a testament of the bond between parent and child. Adonis Creed becoming a father becomes his driving force to get back to believing in himself again after the disastrous beating he took from Viktor Drago in the first fight. Distance and death do not ultimately separate this bond, for better or worse. Even Ivan Drago, who was hellbent to repair the legacy he lost and was nasty in his attempt to do so, put all that aside as his son was suffering a defeat and abandonment from his mother, who narcissistically left her son. Rocky was distant from his son for a long time but he shows up on his doorstep in the end and Robert lets Rocky back in. It's never really known what was the catalyst for their distance because it doesn't matter. The bond is never broken.