Tis the year for decent reboots, revamps and sequels to seasoned franchises. I’d already had a couple good experiences with Spectre and Mad Max: Fury Road. Also, like many of you reading this, I’m waiting for a reason to call in late to everything I might’ve planned on December 18th. But before then, I had occasion to take in the newest addition / spin-off from the saga of Rocky Balboa, entitled simply enough “Creed.”
The movie starts off focusing on young Adonis Johnson, who’s been bounced around to various foster facilities. A mysterious lady comes to visit Adonis after his latest lockdown for fighting and offers to give him a permanent home. She says she was married to Adonis’s deceased father, and the boy relaxes just a tiny bit, asking to know the man’s name…
Flash forward to our lead character, now a young adult portrayed by Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle) and we see this desire to fight repeatedly has been burning within him, despite the excellent upbringing by Marianne Creed (wonderfully acted by Phylicia Rashad). He’s given himself natural ability to fight but for true boxing knowledge, Adonis decides only one man can give him the true insights he needs to excel at boxing. So over Marianne’s objections, Adonis’s inevitable journey to find the Italian Stallion in Philadelphia begins…
If you’re familiar with even hearing about the Rocky movies, you can probably have a good guess at how things might play out, but there are many more layers of storytelling here than a simple boxing movie. This is the first of the films that is not written and / or directed by Sylvester Stallone. That honor belongs to Ryan Coogler (along with co-screenwriter Aaron Covington) who has created a wonderful extension of the series here, probably the best since the original Rocky film itself. Between his craft and Jordan’s performance, I found myself very much rooting for Adonis to succeed here and get through the demons that are driving him.
The training and hard-hitting fight sequences strike just the right balance with the drama and character development here. Coogler infuses some nice modern touches as well as callbacks to the previous films (including the much-loved chicken) while giving us a full character to focus on. Adonis is an angry young man who can’t stop being angry, but at times would like to try. Jordan makes him a believable guy with issues that would logically from being haunted by his past. When guided by Rocky, he finds much of what he’s needed in his life. This is also provided by Adonis’s new neighbor Bianca, a hard working young singer portrayed by Tessa Thompson (Selma).
The entire supporting group is good to watch here, especially Stallone himself. You would think he’d hand off his biggest baby to Googler and call it a career but no… he doesn’t do that. He puts into this performance as Rocky one of the best of his career. This isn’t the cartoonish actor you might’ve seen in the 80s/90s action era. This is Stallone going into his Cop Land nuances to depict Rocky teaching what Adonis needs to know (as a fighter and as a man) as well as showing what the aging fighter turned restaurant manager needs in his own life now that so much has gone by. It’s kind of heartbreaking to see what has come to the character, and at times can remind one how folks should be treated at every stage of life.
In short, Creed is a great piece of work from everyone involved. I’d avoided seeing Fruitvale Station because I knew the subject matter would probably put me in a very bad mood, but I want to see more of Coogler’s talents as a storyteller. Hopefully, he’ll get to do a sequel to this movie (since Jordan’s film schedule just got lighter by one FF sequel). In the meantime, think I’ll watch the other movies again (especially Rocky IV since it came out about this time 30 years back), talk to my family some, and maybe re-watch this goofy Rocky vs Ippo AMV from a couple years back. Anyway, go check out this movie, guys. It’s definitely worth your time. Also, Happy Thanksgiving!
Grade: A