My Review of Creed
Creed is directed by Ryan Coogler and is the newest film in the Rocky franchise. This film is part of the new movement of legacyquels (such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens). It stars Michael B Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, it follows Adonis Creed, Jordan, who is the son from an affair that Apollo Creed had with a woman who passed away. Adonis spent time in Juvenile detention centers and in foster care until Apollo’s wife found him and took him in. Adonis wants to live up to his father’s legacy so he tracks down Rocky Balboa, Stallone, asking him to train him. This leads to Adonis to slowly gain publicity until the number 1 pound for pound boxer in the world challenges him to a fight and of course Adonis jumps at this opportunity. When I saw this film the first time I had never seen a Rocky film and then I saw it the second time I saw it I had seen the first Rocky film. My thoughts did not change from the first to the second time.
I usually talk about actors first but this time I feel it necessary to go to the incredible director: Ryan Coogler. This film is so amazingly directed; the boxing scenes are mind blowing they are definitely the best boxing ever in film. They are so realistic it actually looks like people are throwing real punches and actually hurting each other and I think that is because they are. I’m not sure how much of the boxing Jordan did but it looks like he is doing it all! After seeing the first Rocky and being a bit underwhelmed by the ‘amazing’ training montage I have heard about, this film delivers several remarkable montages set to an astonishing score that gave me chills both times of seeing it. The film is also written by Ryan Coogler and he did the same kind of job with that as he did with the directing. Brilliantly written it is also a very good story and not just a rip off of the original Rocky. This film has originality round every corner, I especially love top trump like cards that show each boxer’s credentials that pop up every time you meet a new boxer. The final opponent of Adonis, Ricky Conlan, played by Tony Bellew is very well portrayed and has a fun personality. I’ve already talked about the score for the montages and that has to be said for the entire film it is basically the same piece of music but just altered and it really worked. Along with an awesome score there is a brilliant soundtrack with songs that fit the film perfectly.
This is a very well-acted film. Stallone has already won a Golden Globe (how much the Golden Globes matter is up for debate but he still won it) and he is probably the front runner for the Oscar, I think maybe Tom Hardy might deserve it a bit more but I wouldn’t oppose to Stallone to winning it as he does a great job in Creed. He is called upon to actually do some acting in this film and he established an emotional connection with me and made my eyes water a tiny bit. I am not usually a fan of Stallone usually but in this film he was very likeable even if he does make a couple stupid clichéd old people jokes. Michael B Jordan is amazing. You actually believe that he could be a boxer and you believe that he can throw and take punches in the ring. He definitely shows his spectrum of acting in the film. Just like the Director he is going somewhere. This film showcases two of the brightest sparks in the world of film for the future.
This film does have some faults; they may be few but they are still there. Tessa Thompson is great in this film don’t get me wrong but I actually cannot remember what her name is, I think it might be Bianca (I added that bit in after thinking really hard about it). She is just a bit forgettable and hear progressive hearing loss is cute and all I guess. She loves music but one day she won’t be able to hear it but in the context of the movie I’m not 100% sure it was needed. I feel like people are harsh to Adonis for no reason really. For example, it is said that Adonis has fought 15 fights, or there abouts, and has knocked out every person he goes up against and then he goes to find a trainer and this guy says that he doesn’t want to train him because basically he is from privilege; he only trains kids from hard backgrounds because they have to fight to get accepted. This alone is stupid considering Adonis’ mother died and his father died before he was born, if that isn’t a troubled childhood I don’t know what is. Also he is denied training because he can’t defeat the second pound for pound boxer in the world, someone who has self-trained himself from when he was boy cannot beat one of the best boxers in the world and he is laughed out of the gym. That’s just a bit harsh. I would’ve also liked to have seen one more boxing fight, just because they were so good! It could have replaced a scene with Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson or just made the film longer as it definitely was nowhere near being too long. I know I said Stallone is great in this film but there are some sparse scenes where I couldn’t really understand what he was saying.
I loved this movie and I am not a sports films fan at all and yet I found myself adoring this film I cannot wait to get the DVD and experience it all over again. There has been lots of talk of Oscar snubs this year and I think a major one that people have not been talking about is Creed I definitely think this film is better than Bridge of Spies. I also got the impression that Creed was received better critically than Bridge of Spies. This film did deserve a nomination I don’t know whether I would’ve wanted it to win but I still would’ve liked it to be mentioned. I’ve run out of positive adjectives to describe this film so I’m going to go with a bit of a plain one but in this case I think it’s perfect. This is just a really ‘nice film’ I thoroughly enjoyed it both times of seeing it and I would highly recommend it.
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