Creed II

Creed II follows the rising star of Adonis Creed, son of former legendary boxer Apollo Creed, who like his late father has now become world champion in the heavyweight boxing division.

Creed has it all. He’s champion of the world, he’s getting married with his long time girlfriend and songwriter Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and they’re expecting their first child. Him and Rocky are cool, he’s got like 4 percent body fat…. Everything is perfect.

So where’s drama then? Well the introduction of Viktor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, the Soviet boxer that took his father’s life in the ring, decades prior.

By taking on the ghost of his father in a new form, lineage to lineage Creed feels the need to vanquish that shadow and avenge his father in some way.

Its understandable. It’s a macho driven world that boxers live in and to back down in anyway is stating that you’re less of a man. Plus Viktor is fighting matches in high school gymnasiums and working construction during the day. Easy money.

Yes he’s big and strong, easily outweighing Creed by a good 20 pounds but he’s not necessarily training with world class boxers or being scientificly breed for perfection like how his father was when he faced Apollo Creed.

Lets just say it’s hard to imagine a guy of the street calling out the the world champ and not only getting his shot but bringing fear to the champ and his small corner of supporters… so much so that Rocky says he’s out on this one.

And yes the worse happens. Or pretty close to it as Drago punishes Creed, breaking his ribs, orbital bone and lacerating a kidney but still, he retains the belt as Viktor gets disqualified for a brutal strike while Creed was knocked down to his knee.

And so is the buildup to the rematch. Does he do the rematch? How does he rebuild? Will Rocky rejoin his corner and install a new regime that can handle a much bigger fighter like Viktor?

If you really want to know then go check it out.

Honestly the only intrigue in his film is the offspring of great boxers getting at it, which was why the film was made of course but the getting there part was boring and predictable.

There is no cool fight sequence like director Ryan Coogler did in the original Creed, and even Coogler himself didn’t even show up this time around to helm the franchise. There’s no real sense of rooting for the underdog which is why we all loved Rocky and the original Creed film and made them so good and outside of a bumbling old man Rocky, which Stallone has done well with, the characters are mostly flat.

Basically it’s just a montage of the slower parts of all the Rocky films mixed in with an interesting premise.