Grade: B+
Director Ryan Coogler has put together a solid movie with Creed. I struggle to categorize it. Is it a sequel? Is it a spinoff? Is it a feature-length epilogue? What would you call it?
Creed tells the story of Adonis, the son of the late Apollo Creed. Despite having just been promoted, he quits what looks like a high-profile office job and moves from LA to Philadelphia with dreams of following in his old man’s footsteps and becoming a boxer. Rocky Balboa has been retired from the ring for years, but is still in Philly, owning and managing a restaurant named after Adrian. After some persuasive talking, Rocky agrees to train Adonis, and even takes him into his home and becomes like an uncle to him.
There is a moment halfway through where Rocky, Adonis, and his lady friend are sitting at the dinner table eating and drinking wine, where a feeling of delight washed over me and I felt like I knew these characters for ages and was right there in the kitchen with them. I am not a fan of boxing films, and before now, I had never seen a Rocky movie. However, Creed is strong enough to stand on its own. I dug the hell out of it, and reveled in how it refreshingly side-stepped many possible movie cliches. Adonis gets a girlfriend, but it is not a Meet Cute. There’s a part where we see them begin to fool around, but the scene ends quickly. The movie doesn’t screech to a clumsy halt for a lengthy sex scene, like a lesser one might have. The climactic match toward the end was fun to watch, in all its Oliver Stonian glory. Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone plays Rocky with grace, wisdom, sincerity, and smarts. These characters have dimensions and vibrancy. The soundtrack and score are consistently exciting, with some amusing throwbacks to the theme of the original films. You wanna take a piece of art and make it accessible to someone who wouldn’t normally find it their cup of tea? THIS is how you do it.
Grade: B+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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