Creed

This review may contain spoilers!

For a Rocky film this isn't the best I've seen, but as a boxing film it really holds it's own. I would give Creed a 6.5/10.

What really drives the plot of this film is the Rocky subplot, throughout the film we're learning about what's happened since we last saw Rocky as well as seeing Rocky battle with cancer. The importance of Rocky to this franchise was always going to overshadow Adonis Creed's story from the minute Sylvester Stallone appeared in the first trailer. The ending is one of the strongest moments in the film, the battle between Creed and Conlan is an intense moment of action and emotion that is masterfully directed, written and acted out. In fact all of the fight scenes in this film are examples of incredible fight choreography, the blows that land look as intense as they did back in the original Rocky films. The cinematography has changed a lot from the past Rocky films but it's definitely for the better, there is some incredible flow in how the shots take in the intense battles. The soundtrack and score have always been strengths of the Rocky franchise and Creed shares these strengths, the score is particularly powerful in matching some of the best scenes of the film.

Michael B Jordan, who played Adonis Johnson, is an incredible lead, he plays a character that's really raw and you can really feel the aggression emanating from Jordan throughout.

However the best performance came from Sylvester Stallone, who played Rocky Balboa. This is a character that is immortal for Stallone, I could watch this man play Rocky a thousand times and he would still be as powerful as he was in the first Rocky. Stallone embraces Rocky as a genuine figure, a character who connects with anyone on screen and resembles a community figure. You can feel the weight of experience he has in training sequences but what really makes Rocky special is the amount of love and care he carries. Throughout these films and no less so in Creed, Rocky displays how much he cares for Adrian, Pauly, Apollo, and now Adonis; he's the heart of these films.

This is long for a Rocky film, in fact it is the longest one and you feel every second of it. A lot of that stems from the main plot around Adonis, you simply do not care about him as much because he lacks the heart that Rocky has shown. That isn't to lessen Jordan's performance but it's frankly just an example of a weak script. There is a love subplot in this film that feels a little contrived, more of a hook up than two people who actually care about each other like what we saw with Rocky and Adrian. The editing of this film is one of it's greatest flaws, the choice to pause the film upon stat profiles of the fighters is really jarring and detrimental to the film.

Tessa Thompson, who played Bianca, spearheads the weak romance subplot of the film; she lacks chemistry with jordan and you feel like her techno music story takes up too much time. Phylicia Rashad, who played Mary Anne Creed, isn't really in this film enough; they try to establish a strong emotional bond between her and Jordan but it doesn't really pay off. Tony Bellew, who played 'Pretty' Ricky Conlan, is a bit of a poorly written antagonist; at the end of the film his character completely one eighties and acts kindly towards Jordan which felt out of character. Ritchie Coster, who played Pete Sporino, is a character that is a slave to the plot; all he does is set the plot up to advance and then we never see him again once he's fulfilled that purpose. Graham McTavish, who played Tommy Holiday, was a woefully underutilised antagonist; he had a lot of potential but was confined to only two decent scenes. Ricardo McGill, who played Padman, is an example of the Rocky franchise's weakness; if you're a secondary trainer you don't feel like a character but rather background furniture.