THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
In one way, spin-offs can be produced for the sake of grabbing extra cash. But they can also be an opportunity to expand upon the franchise’s storytelling. No one really thought we ever had to return to the Rocky franchise after the original conclusion in 2006, but the doubts stopped in 2015 as we were generally impressed with a whole new inventive arc.
PLOT
Creed follows 'Hollywood' Adonis/Donnie Johnson, the illegitimate son of the late Apollo Creed. The iconic boxer had cheated on his wife Mary Anne with before his death, resulting in his son to be born after his passing. When Donnie’s unnamed mother would pass away early in his childhood, he would grow up in and out of foster care & youth detention centers until being tracked down and adopted by Mary Anne in 1998. As an adult in 2015, Donnie would quit a financing job to pursue boxing like his father. He would go to Los Angeles and reach out to Tony Evers Junior aka Little Duke (Wood Harris) to train him, but the latter turns him down, especially when he chooses to embarrass himself, getting beaten in a sparring match against light heavyweight contender Danny Wheeler (Andre Ward), losing his car in a bet. When he shares his aspirations to Mary Anne, she opposes it as she remembers watching her husband die in the ring. Un-phased of her opinion, he goes to Philadelphia and gets in touch with Apollo’s former rival turned friend, Rocky Balboa. When he first meets him at his restaurant “Adrian’s”, he asks him to be his trainer, but the fellow legend is hesitant since it didn’t work out when he trained Tommy Gunn. However, he would share a big secret that it was Apollo that won the private third fight between them. Donnie would start training on his own at the gym Mighty Mick’s, which would lead to Balboa changing his mind and deciding to train him at Fight Street Gym. In between training, the young boxer would spark an intimate relationship with his neighbor Bianca Taylor, a singer/songwriter who is in the early stages of progressive hearing loss. Donnie would have a successful start under Balboa’s wing after defeating local fighter Leo Sporino (Gabriel Rosado). However, the loss was taken so personal by the opponent, his corner would leak to the public who his father is. When that happens, it gets the attention of light heavyweight champion ‘Pretty’ Ricky Conlan, whose being forced into retirement by an impending prison term. His manager Tommy Holiday would reach out to the up and comer to be his final opponent, replacing the original challenger Wheeler, unable to compete after Conlan broke his jaw at the original weigh-in. Donnie would be adamant on the recommendation to use his father’s surname, for the sake of wanting to forge his own legacy, but he gets convinced to do so by Bianca once she finds out who he really is. Upon training for the championship fight, Rocky would collapse and get rushed to the hospital. After he recovers, he is diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The doctors insist to take chemotherapy, but he chooses to not be on top of this due to how it didn’t work out for his wife when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. When Donnie finds out of his decision, he refuses to train unless he accepts treatment, which they eventually both agree to. After weeks of training physically and emotionally, Team Creed would head to Goodson Park for the championship bout. Conlan however would get into Donnie’s head at the press conference by making clear he hasn’t earned his respect by believing he lives off of his father's success. On the night of, the young challenger would dawn his father’s trunks, gifted to him by Mary Anne. When the match officially ensues, Donnie would go the distance with Conlan and round after round (12 total), he would recover from each knock down and would return the favor by knocking down the champion for the first time in his career. By the end of the bout, Conlan would win via split decision, but he and the crowd would express their respect towards Creed. The film wound end in a time jump, weeks after the fight, showing Donnie walk the 72 steps outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, alongside a now healthily improving Rocky.
THOUGHTS
I was a fan of the Rocky franchise early into my teens, which made it an easy decision for me to check this out as soon as possible. With Sylvester Stallone not involved as director or writer, it definitely felt like a gamble to begin with. Nevertheless, Ryan Coogler came through directing a gripping sports drama that fits into the mold oh so well. The cinematography and score are at their most their effective here, as they make you believe you are experiencing the boxing world as you know it. The connection becomes so strong here because it displays a strong perspective on perseverance. No matter where you come from and no matter what people say, only you are capable of pushing yourself to succeed and stopping yourself. It is not a surprise to know that success cannot be achieved, so you must remember to keep working hard enough until you get what you want. And when you get it, keep working harder because you never know what else could happen in the future. This is crystal clear when following the perspective of the new lead Adonis. Michael B Jordan arguably gives his best performance of the young Creed by showing him to be a guy who has all the traits to make a great boxer: It is the tenacity and fiery attitude that makes him oh so formidable. The big difference he has from past protagonists is the chip on his shoulder to prove himself. He has a good heart because he doesn't take anybody for granted, but wants to be respected for being his own person. Knowing who his dad was, it becomes harder to make a personal legacy for himself. The talent is in his genes, but overtime, he figured out how to make it his own and make people briefly forget where he comes from. The best thing about him is even he understood the benefit of teamwork when it comes to achieving success. As a boxer, success is gained from those willing to train you and he scored big time being trained by the Italian Stallion. There was no way this story would work without Stallone's presence as Rocky to begin passing the torch, which only made us fans grateful to see it unfold. Apart from not being the lead anymore, this is still the iconic character we've loved from the beginning. And from there, we've always seen him to be vulnerable in various predicaments, but him battling lymphoma is the highest form possible. We still love Rocky for expressing the wisdom he's gained in his lifetime, but you feel so bad on how alone he's become with not only Adrian, but also Paulie dying offscreen. And with his son Robert Junior living his own life, it again feels hard for him to enjoy what he has left, losing what is left of his will. Thankfully, Donnie wasn't gonna let him give up because he knew it'd be cowardly of him to do. Rocky really was family to the Creeds because Apollo was there for him when Mickey died, motivated him to keep fighting. Donnie knew that and chose to do the same to him. Thanks to that, Rocky would return the favor and helping him perfect the eye of the tiger in him. It was beautiful seeing them walk the steps together at the end because to me, a new legacy was officially sparked. Going into the rest of the cast, Bianca was another great addition to the cast thanks to Tessa Thompson expressing her own set of determination to succeed. Despite her circumstances, she doesn't become overwhelmed and continues pushing herself to achieve her own desired success. She and Donnie connect so well because they don't understand how it is truly yourself that pushes you the hardest and you can make your dreams a reality after all the hard work that's put in. She definitely becomes Adrian in spirit because she encourages Donnie to be embrace his family legacy. Had it not been for her, he would've not gotten his chance to shine. It was hard to imagine Mary Anne being involved with this story, but it made sense for her to be involved because Donnie needed at least one parent to express their love. Phylicia Rashad would show her to be the most accurate kind of mother out there. She’s the one who would not immediately approve of the decisions made by the children, but damn sure respects it in order to accept their children growing up. She adopted Donnie in the first place because she knew he needed some kind of guidance in order to find the direction he wanted his life to take. Adopting him was her way to forgive Apollo for his infidelity. Without her, he would never have made it as far as he did. Thanks to Creed III confirming that her children were still around when she adopted him, although they allegedly never accepted him at the time, it further expressed how strong her motherly love is. And her giving him his father’s classic trunks further proves how much she respects the oath he chooses to make as an adult, which puts me on relief how close they would choose to be as their series would progress. Like the first two Rocky films, we don’t exactly have a villain, but an opponent that leaves behind a big impression. Tony Bellew makes clear that Pretty Rocky Conlan is a force to be reckoned with due to letting his temper get the best of him. Despite his arrogance, he makes clear that he will do anything to prove to the fans of the boxing world how much he deserves to be respected for what he is capable of. Despite knowing how to get under people’s skins, even he is reminded that they must prepare for unexpected, which was Adonis in this case. Since his crimes are nothing compared to Ivan Drago, the guy should be off the hook atter this bout. Following up on this, I also thought Graham McTavish was even a solid choice in making Tommy Holiday so protective of a trainer towards Ricky. Had it not been for him calling out the man he trains for his recklessness, I don’t think he would’ve not made it so far as a competitor/champion. He ironically reminded me a whole lot of Duke more than this his own son Little Duke did because he did nothing but look out for him. This movie was so dope to get through, but a die hard fan can still admit it had its own set of issues. I mean how convenient was it for Donnie to spot a poster of Bianca performing when he wasn’t even planning to see her? Of all the places he would pass by while jogging, it was somewhere she was performing. Going forward, I honestly wouldn’t blame Donnie for reaching out to Rocky to train him since he is the best, but even if he was using his mother’s last name, he should’ve known he would be risking bringing attention to himself. And what was the point of not making Donnie’s boxing record relevant until after his fight with Conlan? It’s the 21st century where stuff can get found out fast. If anything, that should be further proof of how capable he is. Also, I thought it was so out of character for Donnie to look at the brochures in Rocky’s jacket when we know he’s not a meddling kind of guy. I know we need another excuse for more tension; but this could’ve been handled differently. And was it really 10 seconds when he got knocked out? I gotta ask because it definitely looked like more without even thinking about the slow motion that occurs . And I don’t even blame him for relying on trainers’ finger signals to tell the answer ahead on, but it’s not like each ref would do the same. Ignore this, then you’ll still be into this one as well. I’m conclusion, Creed is a strong entry in the Rocky franchise for being a clever passing of the torch story. If you’ve been a fan from the beginning, see this now.
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