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The ‘Rocky’ franchise has been down on its knees for quite some time now. Not since the campy fun of ‘Rocky IV’ has it made it through all 12 rounds, and it has fallen early on in ‘Rocky V’ and ‘Rocky Balboa’. But now, ten years on from the ill-fated sixth Rocky film, ‘Creed’ brings new life to the franchise whilst lingering onto the past just enough to remind you what made ‘Rocky’ so great in the first place. Not the fighting, though it has always been spectacular, but the characters - and in our new champ Adonis Creed we have someone that can live up to the Rocky Balboa name.
Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan) is the illegitimate son of Rocky’s great rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed, who died in the ring fighting the Russian Drago in ‘Rocky IV’. Adonis is brought up in foster care after his mother died shortly after his birth and he frequently finds himself in trouble, getting into fights with all the other boys. He doesn’t know who his father is and that doesn’t seem to bother him, not until Apollo Creed’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad) turns up and raises him as her own, offering him a chance of a future but also a glimpse into the past. So, Donnie (as he’s called for most of the film) grows up and gets a neat office job, but on the side he’s delving into his father’s legacy and taking fights in Mexico. He’s not doing it because of his father, at least he doesn’t think he is because he resents the man - no, he’s doing it for himself, to create his own legacy. Also, at 16-0, he’s rather good at it.
Mary Anne doesn’t want Donnie to go and fight - she’s already seen her husband die in the ring and she doesn’t want to see her adopted son go the same way. It’s understandable and told in a terrific speech but it falls on deaf ears and Adonis head to Philadelphia, home of Rocky Balboa. Now Rocky (Sylvester Stallone), after his triumphant comeback in ‘Rocky Balboa’ has settled into retirement and lives a lonely life running Adrian’s restaurant. There’s no Paulie, there’s no Adrian, there’s no Mickey. His son, Robert, want nothing to do with him and Marie is absent - he’s living a lonely life and just wants to give up. This melancholy tone is played with heart by Stallone, who’s close relationship with the character really comes to the fore, after all he was the one that created Rocky Balboa in the first place. It’s a performance that reminds us of his first, Oscar-nominated turn as Rocky, and in truth, is a reminder that under the right direction Stallone can be a brilliant actor.
When Donnie arrives in Philly he immediately goes to seek out the great Balboa and he finds him easily enough, the problem is convincing him to come back into the boxing world. Rocky doesn’t want to train Donnie, even when he reveals his surname, Rocky’s too old and stepped away from anything ring-related a long while ago. It does take some convincing, and the turnaround is one of the film’s least though out moments, but Rocky does change his mind with an admittedly touching tribute to those that haunt his tormented face. Rocky’s not the only one in Donnie’s camp though, he’s joined by Bianca (Tessa Thompson) a local singer that is Donnie’s Adrian. Jordan and Thompson have good chemistry and their relationship is initially believable as he knocks on her door at 3AM because her loud music is keeping him awake. From there, their relationship blossoms into something else and we discover that Bianca has progressive hearing loss. Whilst this doesn’t become a major plot point, it is a nice metaphor for a film which at its heart is about loss and how you cope.
It’s a strangely melancholic tone which has been with the ‘Rocky’ franchise from the very beginning. Each film juxtaposes loss and emotional anguish with hope and inspirational success. It’s an interesting and surprising note which has been built upon with each instalment of the series as they steadily became less campy fun. It’s a feeling which you wouldn’t expect from a boxing film - let alone seven of them - and yet each time it has appeared, though none can claim to reach the level of depth which is afforded to it by Ryan Coogler in ‘Creed’. Whilst Bianca struggles, or rather goes on, with life and her progressive hearing loss, there’s Donnie - trying to deal with the loss of a father he never met and the sense that he has something to prove. Then, and most importantly, there’s Rocky, who’s lost everyone he cared about in life and could be losing even more. There’s something which happens to Rocky that connects each character’s sense of loss and the film excels in exploring it.
However, whilst the romance between Adonis and Bianca began assuredly and seemed to suggest that Bianca wouldn’t be a throwaway romantic interest, in the second half she becomes just that. It is a shame, because she threatened to be an extremely captivating character - and for the the first half of the film she was - but then she is forgotten for a long stretch and by the time she returns it felt so fanciful that it distinctly lacked any emotional involvement. That being said, their early relationship is handled to a tee - as they share a tender first kiss in a creative upside down shot, I found myself gushing with joy. Again, as they shared a rather more passionate act of love I felt obliged to call the overly sensual scene warranted given how the filmmakers hadn’t rushed into it - as was perhaps the mistake in the original ‘Rocky’ film.
Michael B Jordan both looks and acts the part as Adonis Creed. Chiselled and endlessly talented, this is the performance which will elevate him to the status he is deserving of. Working again with Ryan Coogler, after the pair collaborated on ‘Fruitvale Station’, they prove themselves to be a glorious double act, with Coogler’s intense directing style complementing Jordan’s eagerness and presentability. Although, Creed may be the title character this time around, it is Sylvester Stallone who steals the screen as Rocky, eating up the screen with the kind of display we’ve never seen him give - he loses the macho side and goes tender, something which suits his aged face rather well. Had Stallone not made countless terrible action films over the years then he’d be thought of as a far greater actor than he is, because this proves that he’s got all the ability in the world.
Creed is as inspirational as all of it’s Rocky predecessors but also darker, more serious and all more grown up. Whereas in previous entries Rocky has appeared like a fairytale hero, here we see a battered old man, tired of life and more than willing to pass over the gloves to a much younger man that is determined to prove himself - he just needs a little help along the way. Rocky has been and always will be a legendary character, but ‘Creed’ gives us a glimpse into a world without ‘Rocky’ and the start of a new legend, Adonis Creed.
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