Creed

It takes a real man to admit that he was wrong. I am a real man and I can at least admit when I was wrong. 

Yes I am a Rocky fan. Have been since I was a child and was introduced to Rocky III and was soon introduced to the WWF through Hulk Hogan’s appearance in the film as well as become a fan of boxing and MMA and have closely followed the series through all of the films.

The films have greatly influenced my life as well as the lives of many others.

When I first heard the announcement for Creed I was none too happy to find out about the plot as I thought that Rocky Balboa was the best way to finish out the series. I thought that the film would suck.

I was also not happy to find out that Burt Young and Tony Evers would not be in the film. Next to Stallone these characters are main stays in the franchise as they have been in all of the films.

Now on the plus side I always felt that there was much to be done with the character of Apollo Creed and when the character was killed in the fourth installment at the hands of Ivan Drago the character and his legacy was all but dropped, with the exception of a few mentions in the next two films.

I apparently was not the only one.

Hot off the success of Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler pitched the idea to Stallone of a spinoff film that followed the son of Apollo Creed as he starts his fighting career and is trained by Balboa.

Fruitvale Station also starred Michael B. Jordan in the role of the ill-fated Oscar Grant and would take on the Title Role of Adonis “Donnie” Creed.

We soon learn that Donnie is the illegitimate son of Apollo and after the death of his biological mother found himself falling thru the  cracks of the system and getting into fights landing himself in Juvenile detention until one day he is found by Mary-Ann Creed and raised as her own.

Now where many people will think that this is history repeating it’s self we soon learn that Adonis has been given the best education and has a great life lined up before him but wants the path of a championship boxer.

Being spurned by Mary-Ann and Apollo’s Academy including the son of Duke,  Donnie travels to Philadelphia where he seeks out Rocky Balboa.

Rocky is pretty much where we left him nearly a decade ago running his restaurant and visiting the grave of his late wife and now his best friend Paulie and soon decides to take on Donnie as his protégé.

While Donnie is romancing a young singer Bianca Rocky soon finds that he is ill and fighting his most deadly opponent…Cancer.

This was an amazing story that while watching with a packed house and hearing the reactions of the attendees who were all into the flick from beginning to end with the humor and highs and lows in emotions in the flick. There was even many with tears in the theatre.

The Camera work was amazing and I am going to get many dirty looks but this was probably the best fight in the sequels from a technical and story perspective.

The film also maintains continuity to the Rocky series and answers the question as to who won the third fight between Rocky and Apollo in the end of the third film. 

There is also a scene where Rocky shows a picture of his son and it is of Sage Stallone who played the character in Rocky V. Sadly Sage passed away in 2012.  

I want to say that I was impressed with Stallone but I have always had him pegged as a great actor and filmmaker but I was more impressed with Jordan who could stand next to Stallone playing the character of Rocky Balboa and still maintain to keep the focus on the film on the Creed character.

Credit also needs to go to Tessa Thompson for her performance as Bianca.

There is already talks of a sequel.

5 Stars

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