shirleynichols-59013
I am NOT a boxing person. I have never watched a Rocky movie. I honestly don't care about sports. I came for Ryan Coogler and I was not disappointed. This movie is gripping, the visuals are spectacular, and each performance is so committed. If you're a Rocky fan, like my dad who I saw this with, you will probably like it, but if you think you need to watch six movies before this one to get it, you don't!! It stands on its own and it's great.
view_and_review
I shied away from this movie for--I guess--a couple of years now. I'll tell you why: because nothing bothers me more, cinematically, than famed and glorious movie that has a horrible sequel. The Rocky franchise is spectacular (with the exception of Rocky V, we'll pretend that never happened). I was so afraid of Creed being this pock mark right on the beautiful face of Rocky. But I'd heard good things. Then I saw Black Panther, which is by the same director (Ryan Coogler), and I thought, "I think I'll check out Creed."I'm so glad I did. First of all the story was good. Apollo Creed had a son by another woman and his widow took in that kid and raised him like her own. Even though he had a good upbringing his true passion was to fight. He wanted to fight like his father and be trained by Rocky Balboa without using his father's name--which was it's own struggle. He goes through peaks and valleys in his quest to be a real boxer and it's all essential for the story to be good.The second thing that impressed me was Sylvester Stallone playing the aged and retired Rocky Balboa. He was superb in his more subdued and sage-like role. He's no longer the young and fit fighter; he's now an old man lovingly referred to as uncle by a young prodigy that he wants to see succeed. It was such a great performance. I've never seen Sly be anything other than the macho action hero (with the exception of Oscar). To see him be this mellow enlightened character that wasn't forced or satirical was awesome. In his language and manner of speaking he was still Rocky Balboa: a Philly street guy that knew how to fight, but in his behavior and handling of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) he was like Yoda. I was mesmerized.We must remember though that this is Creed, a sequel or spinoff from Rocky, so boxing is the key. Not just simply boxing, but boxing as a heavy underdog. We had that of course and I don't think you'd be disappointed. It can never be as good as the original but it was certainly a worthy follow up.
Taylor M
I have never watched any of the previous Rocky films. Naturally, I have heard of them and Creed in particular. I was always intrigued about this movie due to the overwhelming hype it received from critics. So on a whim late one night, I happened to catch this film on HBO. I found myself neither impressed nor disappointed with Creed. It's an average sports drama that had no reason to be made, besides cashing in on 80s nostalgia.
Pros:
Michael B Jordan and Tessa Thompson have good on-screen chemistry.
Sylvester Stallone does decent playing Rocky despite having little to work with.
Technical aspects of this movie are fine.
Michael B Jordan excels in his fight scenes.
Michael and Sylvester do have some chemistry.
Cons:
The plot. It takes a while to build up to the climax of this movie(the fight scene with Ricky) and after we get to the climax, the movie pretty much dies. There isn't a lot of tension or exposition given. The movie starts with Donnie being locked up in Juvie and jumps directly to modern times. For a two hour plus movie, they had enough time to give a little more exposition. Everything we learn about Donnie is told to us and hardly shown. The story is insanely cliche and predictable. 30 minutes in and you already have an impression of how it's going to end. By the time I got to the ending, I just felt numb and not as inspired as the film wanted me to be. Not only does Donnie fail to make a name for himself at the end but then we get a ripoff "Rocky Stair-steps" scene.
ellimic
It was undeniably a good film, the boxing stats that appeared with every new boxer on screen was a nice idea although it did become a bit too much of a fighter movie for my tastes.
I think the idea of following Apollos son and getting an elderly Rocky to train him was good as it built on the friendship and loyalty between Rocky and Apollo, but I don't like what they've done to Rocky; a fighter and believer has suddenly turned into a cynical old man, not even bothered to fight his own illness (yes the death of Paulie and Adrian, his only family we ever saw, would have messed him up in the head but it seemed unlike the Rocky we knew)
And the idea of an illegitimate son just besmirched the memory of a favourite character from four films, yes they needed a link to Apollo but couldn't they have found another way??The storyline was similar really to the original Rocky film, except instead of a nobody given a shot it was an up-and-comer.
And it can be argued that Rocky almost took the role of Mickey.As I said it was a good film and I do hope they make sequel, but maybe lighten up on Rocky's character
AD
