Two stories that don't fit together

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2019)

I have rather mixed feelings of Creed II. It has two incompatible pieces. The first piece is the revenge story of Ivan Drago and his son and how they're trying to regain their lost glory in Russia by beating Apollo Creed's son. The other one is of Creed's son Adonis and his new fiancée and their new born baby. Adonis now has something important in his life, something too important to lose.
After his first match with Drago's son he's lying on a hospital bed bruised, barely able to talk. It's a moment that would make one to think twice before entering the ring again. Even Adonis himself recognizes the possibility that his daughter might have to live without a father, if he would face Drago again.
The film stays on this route for surprisingly long. It's a very humane moment where you might even forget this is a boxing movie. Meanwhile we learn that Drago and his son are seeking a rematch in a hope that it would bring back their mother/wife. Maybe it's the accent or the total cold heartedness of her that to me makes their desperate struggle seem unintentionally comedic.
All this time there's a thought in the back in the head that the final rematch fight is coming, but what's happening on screen doesn't feel like it's leading up to it. Instead, it feels like there shouldn't be any match. But of course, that won't do. And there's the laziest transition back to training and to the ring that brushes aside everything that has happened so far. "I have to fight him again", he says. All the worries about the baby and the possibility of Adonis getting hurt or dying in the ring like his father are forgotten by everyone. And the built up to the fight is so victorious in on itself that the possibility of him losing is pretty much out of the picture. If the film had wanted to say something meaningful about family and life outside the ring, wouldn't it have been more impactful to the story, if Rocky had saved Adonis during the rematch by throwing in the towel like he contemplates, if he should had done during his father's fight all those years ago. Maybe it wouldn't have been as triumphant, but it would have fit the two pieces together better rather than forcing them together.