Creed

It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of the Rocky series.  There’s just something about this character and his life that makes for endlessly fascinating movies.  On the surface they seem like one trick ponies, Rocky is down on his luck (either from the get go or sometime later in the film) and he fights his way to glory both in the ring and outside of it.  It’s a close examination of a man’s life and all of the crazy up and down shit that he constantly goes through.  The messages of determination, drive, believing in oneself, devotion, humility and passion are beautiful and pretty damn inspiring.  But it’s been a while and now Rocky has hung up his gloves.  Who’s next to continue the saga?

Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan (The Wire)) wants to take on his father’s legacy and become a professional boxer.  But he doesn’t want anyone to know who he really is because he wants to make it on his own.  He tracks down Balboa and they train, fight and fall in love, uh I mean respect each other deeply and formally pass the torch.

Let’s get the gripes out of the way first.  I love the idea of a story taking place in the Rocky universe that isn’t directly about the main man himself.  The world is so lived in that there are a bunch of possibilities to explore there.  But that isn’t really what Creed is.  Probably the biggest problem I have with the movie is how much of a Rocky picture it is.  Creed and Balboa are focused on almost equally which I wasn’t expecting (it was the title that put that strange notion in my head).  Not only that but the film also constantly throws in references, major plot elements and even a lot of music from the previous Rockys.  There are so many jabs to the ribs in what too often feels like part nostalgia trip (in a bad way) and, to a lesser extent in my opinion, part appeasement to the audience to help get them on board.   Writer/Director Ryan Coogler must be a confidently huge Rocky fan to go all in on this project after the enormous success of his first film Fruitvale Station.  So it feels more like Coogler just gushing his love for all things Rocky here and I think his fandom hurt the final product.  Essentially what I’m saying is the filmmakers hit so many of the same beats as the other Rockys, especially the first, and shoehorned in so many references that it doesn’t feel as fresh as it should.  Guys, you create your own legacy by being your own movie.  Do your own unique boxing story and push the Rocky stuff way into the background.

The other couple of corny things I didn’t care for aren’t that important so I won’t even get into it.  But I do wanna say that the score irritated me.  The tracks that sampled the old Rocky themes and tunes shouldn’t have been in there because [see paragraph above].  And then the original pieces, besides the ones that Creed’s girlfriend makes, felt out of place.  They somehow don’t blend with the visuals, I’m not sure what it is.  A few of the girlfriend’s songs were actually a little cool, a little.

Now on to the good stuff.  Michael B. Jordan is fantastic.  His appearance alone is great because he is totally fuckin’ cut man.  And he’s a damn good actor too.  He comes off as very natural and comfortable with the character and material.  I buy him as a lover and a fighter.  Really good job overall.

Stallone is Stallone.  He knows this goddamn character better than anyone and he plays it perfectly. He was born for this role and it’s interesting to see him revive it again and again as he gets older.  Sly brings a little more wisdom and always a ton of heart each time he does Rocky.  It’s like seeing an old friend that’s only gotten more remarkable and shows more depth with each visit.

Tessa Thompson (Selma) plays Creed’s girlfriend, Bianca, and she’s real good too.  She seems to have that natural thing going as well like Jordan.  In fact the romance between the two was one of the better aspects of the film.  Even though at first it feels completely forced to throw in a love story the romance that Creed and Bianca have is actually not that cringe inducing.  They come off as real grown-ups having a real relationship and not a movie couple that play nauseatingly cute games with each other or have vomit inducing cheesy ass dialogue.  I applaud the picture for taking a more grounded approach with that.

Maryse Alberti (The Wrestler) shot a nice looking movie.  The colors aren’t washed away like the trend had been for a while (we might be over that) and the steady cam work is understated to the point where I didn’t even think about it.  A couple of shots were really fuckin’ cool like when Creed gets knocked down for the first time and the camera follows smacking the mat hard, and the very impressive and fucking badass fight between Creed and his first major opponent where it’s two full rounds in the ring with the fighters all in one long take (seemingly anyway (goddamn computers)). Also, the editing of the training sequences is awesome.  It’s heart-pumping, kinetic and rhythmic.

In the end Creed is solid, good not great.  I wish it had more of its own identity instead of mixing in so many contrived Rocky elements.  I mean this is really just a remake of the first Rocky.  You have a young hungry boxer with practically no track record that gets trained by an old boxing sage for a shot at the title that comes about because the original fight got canceled and the current champ needs to fill the void, so he taps what is seemingly an easy target only to find that the sonuvabitch can really box and gives him a run for his money.

If you’re a Rocky fan of course you should see it.  It’s another fine entry into the catalogue like all the rest.  Well, except V.  That one can eat it.  But even if you’re not a Rocky fan there’s plenty of good stuff here.  Moments like Rocky vising Adrienne and Paulie in the cemetery where he brings them a memorial rose and bottle of booze (respectively) and reads them the newspaper, or when Creed and Bianca talk about why he’s hesitant to use his father’s (and really his own) famous namesake are sweet and wonderful.  The relationships along with the fighting are well handled and touching.  None of it’s groundbreaking but I guess that’s ok.

Man, imagine if there were six movies all about Mickey and the shit he went through before Rocky.  We could have that with Creed if they make five sequels.  I wouldn’t be opposed.