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Confession time, if you would have asked me sometime in the early nineties who I wanted to be, I would’ve told you Stallone. To me, he was the coolest guy on the planet, even above Schwarzenegger. Also, Rocky I and II are my two favorite sports movies of all time, although you could easily make the argument that it is a love story, that uses boxing to push the plot forward. In my opinion, if you want people to get in shape, you should just play the first four Rocky movies on a loop in your local weight room. That being said, Creed had some big shoes to fill.

P.S. if the scene in Rocky II where Adrienne comes out of the coma and tells him to win doesn’t give you the feels… you are made of stone.

Creed tells the story of Adonis Johnson. His mother dies when he is young, he never knew his father, and he ends up in the system. He is then taken in by Apollo Creed’s widow who lets him know that his mother had an affair with Apollo Creed and that is who is father is (this was actually a little confusing to me particularly because they recast Apollo’s widow with Phylicia Rashad). He grows up with a lot of luxuries and although he has resentment towards his father, he loves boxing and wants to do it professionally. Apollo’s widow doesn’t like it for obvious reasons and he leaves home. He doesn’t use his father’s name to get ahead, but he does use it to rope long retired restaurant owner Rocky into training him. They form a bond and from that point on, the movie mainly revolves around their dynamic. Rocky fills in as a type of father figure for Adonis, and Adonis gives him someone to care about now that both Adrienne and Paulie are gone. Adonis also has a love interest in with a local musician played by Tessa Thompson. After Adonis’ first fight with Rocky in his corner, word gets out of who is Father is and is booked into a mega fight. Much like Rocky I, the odds lopsided, and everyone considers this more of a public interest fight than a real match up. During the lead up you get major news about Rocky’s health and the two must lean on each other to overcome their challenges.

The movie had a good storyline with good acting by several interesting characters, although in my opinion they didn’t build up the final opponent very well. He was no Apollo, Clubber or Drago, in fact without looking it up I can’t tell you his name right now. Sylvester Stallone was the best part of the movie, but I wasn’t thinking “He should’ve been a lock for best supporting actor”. There were several subtle and not so subtle nods to the original movies. Most of them landed but one that definitely didn’t work for me was the the tribute to the famous running scene only now they used the local ATV riding kids in the neighborhood.

Overall, it was good but never great. It didn’t evoke any of the old feelings that the first four can still bring out in me.

Here is my current ranking of the Rocky franchise.

Rocky I (tied for first)
Rocky II (tied for first)
Rocky III (tied for second)
Rocky IV (tied for second)
Creed
Rocky Balboa (Meh)
Rocky V (Most people pretend this never happened)

 

Reviewed by: Phillip Lane on April 18, 2016