Creed 2: Cruise Control

Rating: 2/10 (15 February 2019)

Rocky IV was the first title of the Rocky franchise I saw in the early 90s and few movies ever had such an inspiring and lasting impact. I had never seen any Rocky or Creed movie hat followed Rocky IV until now.
Only a few minutes into Creed II, the question came up, is there no easy way out? - Admittedly, the easiest way out would have been to leave the cinema straight away, but as I am reserving this measure of last resort for the worst to come - which could happen anytime soon in today's mainstream cinema - I had to endure 120 minutes of utterly bad movie making.
The story is a waste, completely predictable and at no moment one would feel any sympathy or whatsoever with any of the characters. It even does not occur to me why the main character (Adonis) should be considered the good, sympathetic guy while the other one (Viktor) is the villain. Actually one does not care. The best contribution from the movie came actually from Dolph Lundgren, at this was rather as it was nice to see him again, after Aquaman, and not because his acting was outstanding.
The music and the use of music in the movie is also simply bad. Maybe unfair, but comparing to Rocky IV again, these two movies are miles apart. Here an inspiring soundtrack, there some undefinable rap songs.
One moment in the movie, which clearly demonstrated that this is bad movie making was at the end of the second fight. There it is simply said, the Russian audience is supporting Creed, in Rocky IV you could really feel how over time the mood of the audience was shifting to support Rocky. But again in this Creed movie you do not feel any sympathy for any character whatsoever.
I also never realized why Rocky is at the end visiting his son and grandson, but so be it. Similarly the ending scene at the grave of Apollo does not convey a lot of emotions but rather leaves you cold.
Overall, a big disappointment. In all fairness, hard for me to explain why such a B-movie gets such a positive rating on imdb.com. For me a 2 / 10 at best.