Not feeling it

Rating: 4/10 (11 February 2019)

I watched this yesterday and I seriously don't get the hype. The movie is so full of flaws the I don't know where to begin. From all decisions the movie makes, the director mostly chose the worst from all the options.
Why the heavy focus on the family issue? Who cares? Why drag it out for so long all the time? Why the unrealistic portrait of the life of a World Champion? Does he have no trainer staff, no crew, no fans? Creeds life seems so empty. They live in some place without wallpapers, don't seem to have any belongings and all the characters lack depth. I seriously could not describe them beside their appearance. They are just boring people without interests, without friends, without any life.
Why are obvious questions the movie comes up with not even mentioned, like why a more or less unknown boxer from Russia can just challenge the World Champion? Who sanctioned this? Why is Creed carrying his baby daughter to the gym in the middle of the night? Why doesn't momy care?
Then there is this ridiculous training camp in the desert? Who are these people? Just a bunch of hologram boxers beating each other up in the desert? No accomodations, nothing? Why make the training sequence so dumb? If you want to "remaster" the Rocky IV story, why not make an awesome training scene somewhere in Russia again? While there was this topic of high-tech training -vs- lumberjack training in Rocky IV, nothing of the spirit was left in Creed II. Sure, he hits some old tires and gets beaten up by a guy with lots of tats, but all in all the training sequence is boring and hardly convincing. Jordon does not even try to act it out. Yeah, he has muscles, but that's about all there is about this guy, no physical or mental development, nothing. He doesn't even seem to have a particular style. He is just "a boxer". He doesn't look or act like a champion, rather like an amateur boxer who is not sure weather to step up to a pro league or not. He is how some teenagers might dream of a perfect muscled-up version of themselves, but Jordan certainly has no fighter personality and I don't buy it.
The fights itself are boring too and lack any clear line. Even the rematch against Drago has nothing new to offer. Stallone tries to be the Mr Miyagi / Yoda of boxing here, but he just is not. He is just an old man waiting to tell his story. Yeah, he asks "deep" questions, like "What are you fighting for?", but seriously, who cares? Just get to the point. "Just get to the point" should have been the working title for this movie.