Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren, Florian Munteanu , Phylicia Rashād
Runtime: 2hr 10min Rated PG-13
Watch the trailer
Creed II is essentially the 8th film in the Rocky franchise and continues the story of Adonis; son of legendary boxer Apollo Creed.
After proving himself in the last movie as a boxer worthy to be taken seriously, Adonis has now quickly fought his way to the top of the boxing world. This gains the attention of an old family foe from Rocky IV; the Russian Ivan Drago who has been secretly keeping tabs on Adonis’ career. Ivan soon arrives in Philadelphia to challenge Creed to fight his son Viktor in an effort to exact revenge and and gain national redemption for losing to Rocky 30 years prior.
Even with this historic match up, Creed II isn’t quite able to land the same punch the first movie had. Unfortunately, Ryan Cooglar wasn’t able to return to direct the sequel and after watching Creed I think that could very well be the difference. The attention Cooglar gained from directing Creed no doubt helped him land the movie he is currently most known for; Black Panther.
However, despite its shortcomings (sequels are rarely better than the original anyway), Creed II still has a tremendous amount of heart that makes the movie enjoyable and worth watching.
Creed II’s biggest obstacles are in its pacing and story decisions. The movie feels painfully slow at times, making the slightly over 2hr runtime feel much longer. There’s nothing wrong with a slow burn story, as long as it keeps you engaged. Creed II only manages to do that part of the time.
The majority of the time the movie ends up feeling predictable, formulaic and anticlimactic as it fails to make you forget that this is the 8th movie and you know exactly how things will go.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad film; only that it breaks absolutely zero new ground…other than to maybe show a new perspective on the Drago family.
It also felt weird to me that the movie makes such a small deal out of Adonis becoming champion early on. This is what his goal has ultimately been since the last movie; to be like his dad, to be better than his dad. However the movie just wants to push past that moment to get to the main event: Creed VS Drago. Only Tessa Thopmson’s character seems to grasp the importance of the achievement, telling Adonis after winning his title fight; “Do you know what you’ve done?!”
Sure, Drago vs Creed is exciting and the revenge angle from Ivan works well enough. The movie puts more focus on the legacy Adonis’ will leave for future generations of fans as a champion, but the continued pressure from Viktor wanting to fight Adonis feels forced at times.
I think the scenes would have been much more dramatic if Viktor had already won the title and was literally the wall standing between Adonis and boxing greatness. Viktor would have been able to easily gain the title with his ability. The idea that Ivan had been training his son for 20+ years to be able to redeem the family name but could only do that by defeating Apollo’s son for the title is a bit far fetched. Why would’nt he seek redemption sooner? It’s not like he would have known that Adonis would eventually become champion. Hell, he wouldnt have even known he existed before the last movie. Alos, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to have a grudge against Rocky and his son? Oh well. What we’re given isn’t bad, but it could have been so much better.
Team Creed
Michael B. Jordan does an excellent job once again playing Adonis. It’s clear from watching him fight and train in the movie that he has put a lot of hard work into the role. He looks on par with Stallone’s physique in his prime.
The training montage in the desert, while a random location, is arguably one of the best montages of the franchise. It’s one of the most realistic and believable sequences in the franchises’ history. Maybe I’m crazy, but I swear I could tell a difference in Jordan physically by the end.
Tessa Thompson is equally great to watch as the pair continue to face obstacles and challenges together both inside the ring and out. She brings a beautiful balance of strength and vulnerability to the role.
Starting with the previous film, Rocky has now become more of a supporting character; continuing his role as trainer and father figure for Donnie.
Rocky’s personality as portrayed by Stallone is also still fun to watch after 30 years. He’s just a simple guy with a big heart and the movie does a great job of Rocky and Adonis pushing each other to get past their own obstacles.Sly has said that Creed II is his last time playing Rocky Balboa. If it truly is then I’m happy with how the character has wrapped up. This movie succeeds in giving the character the best possible conclusion after everything he’s been through the last 40 years of Rocky movies.
Team Drago
Lundgren has noticebly more dialogue than in Rocky IV as we get to dive a little deeper into the Drago family’s motivation and what happened to them since Ivan’s defeat to Rocky. You can somewhat sympathize with them, especially Viktor; honestly I felt bad for them more than hated them as villians.
With all the ridiculousness in world news the last few years, I think the movie made a smart choice framing this as a Creed vs Drago matchup while mostly avoiding the US vs Russia themes Rocky IV conveyed. If anything there’s more of a Drago vs Russia story running through the film.
Florian Munteanu plays Viktor Drago and is actually an amateur fighter in real life. He doesn’t say much (The Drago men apparently don’t waste words when they’re boxing) but this guy is an absolute monster; 6ft 4in, 235lbs of pure muscle. He was the perfect choice for the role. Michael B. Jordan’s physique is top notch in this movie, but there’s this moment where Adonis punches Viktor in the gut and it looks like he had just hit a brick wall. It was a great unspoken signal that Creed was in trouble.
The fight choreography is top notch.
The hits taken in this movie look as real as I think I have seen in a boxing movie or in any movie in recent memory for that matter. The choreography and camera angles are accented with well executed CGI and it all looks very realistic for the most part. There are a couple punches that you watch a close up as they land (like the one above), and they look so good you can almost feel it.
Final Verdict
Creed II from start to finish is 150% predictable. Combine that with some pacing issues and this movie fails to surpass its predecessor. However the movie’s huge heart and style still makes it worth your time: watch when you’re in the mood for a classic underdog story. The movie also gives Rocky a nice farewell…provided this actually is his last film as the Italian Stallion.
