"Creed II" Review: A Sequel 30 Years in The Making
With eight films under its belt, the Rocky franchise has seen its share of recycled story with a new twist. Creed II knows its legacy and the pressure to get it right had to have been high on writers Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone. Director Steven Caple Jr. gives us a film that doesn’t live up to the power of Ryan Coogler’s Creed, but still goes the distance.
The film opens with Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) rising to the height of boxing. Simultaneously, in the Ukraine, Viktor Drago (Florain Munteanu), lives a hard life as a blue collar worker while training with his father, Ivan (Dolph Lundgren). The inevitable fight is brokered by promoter Buddy Marcelle (Russell Hornsby), who tells Adonis his father understood he needed a legacy story that would “stick to the ribs”. Thus, the central concept of Creed II.
The film understands the dramatic weight it carries and plays off of the hype, although at times feeling undercooked. Yet, much like a fighter, it discerns that it has to shake up the story to keep its audience entertained and engaged. It does that in the form of building character backstory. We learn just what we need to about life for Ivan after the infamous showdown and the affect it had on his son. We see Adonis and Bianca’s relationship bloom as their family grows. With key placements like Phylicia Rashad’s Mary Anne Creed and Brigitte Nielsen’s Ludmilla Drago giving just the right touch of nostalgia and added spectacle, the film manages to make it out of the ring in one piece.
The original Rocky was a little engine that could film. It was a character drama Trojan Horsed inside of a boxing film. It’s the man vs. man, man vs. self storytelling that Creed II hones in on and creates a decent installment in the franchise. After all, seeing Adonis fight Viktor isn’t really what we are going to the movie for. Instead it’s to answer the deep rooted question of what would you do if you could avenge your father’s death in the ring? Will you get back up when you get knocked down? It’s in this space that the the franchise lives and Creed II delivers. It doesn’t quite pack the same punch as Creed, but certainly a solid entry and sure to please fans that never knew this purported sequel to Rocky IV was the film we’ve been waiting over thirty years for.
Rating: B
"Creed" Review: Embracing the Legacy while Charting New Territory
When I was a kid I used to watch Rocky on VHS over and over until the tape wore out. I would work out with Rocky during the training montages in Rocky IV, and I could probably still quote not just the dialogue, but the sound effects in the fights and montages as well. So when it comes to Creed, I know that I’m not alone in thinking that the new film has to stand on it’s own, while honoring the past. Folks, the torch has been passed, and Creed goes the distance!
Michael B. Jordan is Adonis “Donny” Johnson, son of the late champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). While he never met his father, fighting is in his blood. Whether fighting other kids in foster homes, juvenile detention, or fighting the feeling of illegitimacy, Donny’s life starts out on a fast track to nowhere. His father’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), steps in and helps save him from the system.
While his new life trajectory puts him in a more affluent position, his thirst to fight is still unquenched. Fighting underground in Mexico on occasional weekends, Donny wants to take a real stab at professional boxing in the States but no one will train him. He turns to Philadelphia, to find Rocky (Sylvester Stallone), hoping to find not just a trainer but perhaps answers to questions about his father from the Italian Stallion as well.
From there, the story writes itself, following the underdog layout of films before with themes of determination, romance, struggle, and the will to overcome against odds. This new story is told beautifully however, and performed by a skilled cast. Sylvester Stallone has lived with the character he penned for over three decades now and it shows in his performance. The history of Rocky is on his face, and the relationships he’s had and lost (Apollo, Adrian (Talia Shire), Paulie (Burt Young)) can be heard in his speech. Michael B. Jordan gives an absolutely stellar show as Adonis. Both his physical transformation and his internal struggle as Donny, blend together to create a genuine character that the audience can get behind.
Coming off of Fruitvale Station, co-writer/director Ryan Coogler understands how to boil down a big story to an intimate character drama. With the weight of the Rocky franchise, Creed could have been an epic story that’s all pomp and no heart. Instead, Coogler finds the root of the underdog theme of the franchise and creates beautiful character moments in an ultimately well crafted story.
Creed is a love letter to both the films of the past, and more importantly the essence of what has made the franchise endure in the hearts of fans globally for years! It won’t disappoint. So after you finish eating turkey and all the fixings, wake up and make sure you head out to the local theater for the main event!
Rating: A
Expend "The Expendables" Already!
I’ll keep it real, I enjoy “The Expendables” franchise because they have all the action stars I grew up on in one place. They know who they are, former blockbuster heavy weights who still have a little gas in the tank. I love the corny one-liners that allow them to make fun of each other or themselves, but this franchise needs to retire to straight to DVD land.
The third installment opens with a classic liberation stunt in which Barney (Sylvester Stallone) and the rest of The Expendables free Doc (Wesley Snipes) from a highly secured prison train in route to a maximum security prison in the middle of nowhere. From there we find the crew plus Doc going after maniacal arms dealer Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), a former Expendable who is supposed to be dead.
After Stonebanks seriously injures an Caesar (Terry Crews), Barney decides to sever ties with his old crew (in a weird “I want you guys to live, but I won’t say that” move) and find the next generation to go after Stonebanks. Harrison Ford shows up and proves he can still bring major weight to a character as Drummer, a CIA agent in charge of bringing down Stonebanks and pulling the strings for Barney. This is where you can go use the restroom or refill your popcorn because the cameos start to pour in and the plot is littered with holes that you can fill in yourself with a simple “oh they assembled a team”.
Barney teams up with Bonaparte (Kelsey Grammer), a scout of sorts, to find the new team. They go all over the country and world in a matter of movie minutes to find Thorn (Glen Powell) the hacker, weapons specialist Mars (Victor Ortiz), hand to hand combat expert Luna (Ronda Rousey), and soldier with authority issues Smilee (Kellan Lutz). In the midst of the search they run into Galgo (Antonio Banderas) who is quite funny as motor-mouthed Puss in Boots turned human. Once the new team is set they go after and capture Stonebanks, but are imprisoned almost as quickly as they were assembled. Hey, wasn’t there supposed to be an ultra smart tech guy on the team to know that Stonebanks had a GPS tracker on him? Alas, this movie isn’t about plot, it’s about action and blowing things up. So you know the rest. The old team has to rescue the new team.
The first couple of movies were cute, but now it’s getting a little outlandish even by Expendable standards. Snipes proves he still has the moves and comic timing! Banderas proves to be a great addition as well. Outside of them, the new crew is pretty forgettable. In the same way their characters are pawns in Barney’s plot, they’re equally pawns in Stallone’s attempt to get “The Expendables 3” movie made and poster crowded with tons of faces. I’m sure Ronda Rousey could kick my butt as the MMA fighter she is, but as the only woman on the team she was absolutely horrible. I had to turn away from her “acting” plenty of times during the film.
I’ve never watched “The Expendables” franchise in theaters until now, and that’s because I had to write this review. I wish I didn’t have to watch it in the theater because it was too long and if there wasn’t an action or fighting scene it made me look at my watch or phone for an escape. I couldn’t walk away and come back to it, or fall asleep like I do at home. Instead, I fought through the over-the-top nonsense and funny old men jokes to tell you this, “wait for it to come on your TV for free on TBS”. That’s right, I skipped the DVD, but if you want to see it on DVD let it be a dollar Redbox rental. I love seeing my former action favs, but Stallone can we expend “The Expendables” already?
Rating: D