It's a Rocky Universe flick alright!

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2018)

So whatever freshness Creed brought to the Rocky universe-yeah, that's gone. Creed is now the epitome of this franchise- we get knocked down, we must get back up.
He has reached the highest success as a boxer, all that's left is fight the son of the man who killed his dad.
Rocky of course is here too and it's the layers of loss and loneliness Stallone has added to this character over the years that has made continuing this franchise worth it.
His relationship with Michael B. Jordan is great too- a blend of mentoring, friendship, jokes, and honest verbal fights on occasion that cut deep.
Stallone and Dolph Lundgren get one scene where we find Drago has lost everything except the ability to talk in complete sentences, which he seems to have gained.
These two will never appear together again except to stare each other down in the ring, where Drago pushes his son hard. The ring is where themes of fathers-sons-and legacies.
There's just as many fights as there are training montages. They're good but predictable and the occasional slo-mo punches don't hold a candle to the style Ryan Coogler brought to the first film.
The best thing about them is the focus on tactics, how do you take down a beast like Viktor Drago? That accompanied with the soundtrack is adrenaline-pumping enough to recommend.
A lot of this does follow the same formula though. There's revenge, there are many comparisons between Adonis and his father, there's an inner turmoil that needs to be overcome.
What could have been cool is actually giving Drago and his son a bit more personality.
But as is- Creed 2 is what you might expect. That's both something that works fine but also a bit of a disappointment.
If you like this, check out Craig James Review on Youtube for more.