Creed

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Phylicia Rashad, Tessa Thompson

Directed By: Ryan Coogler

Reviewed by Brendan Dousi

[rating: 4/5]

I have a confession to make. I was one of those pretentious, awful film-school nerds who would whisper behind peoples backs every time I heard they hadn’t seen a cinematic classic. “They haven’t even seen Casablanca? What are they even doing here?”. No, that wasn’t the confession. I think most people know that by now. The horrible confession is that I am one of those cinematic plebeians myself. I have huge gaps in cinematic knowledge, gaping embarrassing holes that wait in the dark to expose me as the hypocrite I am. The most notable of these holes? The entire Rocky franchise. I haven’t seen a single one of them. I recognise the theme, know he runs up stairs at some point, is a boxer and yells “Adrian” a lot but that’s about it. So, I’m just going to say this is a unique opportunity to give an unbiased review of the latest in the franchise, a quasi-spin-off-sequel Creed.

Adonis Johnson (Micahel B. Jordan) has been given every opportunity by his adoptive mother Mary-Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), wife of the late great Apollo Creed, to make something of his life. Bored of his monotonous desk job, Adonis can’t keep the demons inside him at bay, the distinct and overpowerful urge to fight. Denied the chance to train at the local gym in Los Angeles where his biological father once trained, Adonis decides to travel to Philadelphia to seek out the only man who ever stood a chance against his legendary father, the Itallian Stallion himself, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).

I think I may be a convert. I always dismissed the Rocky franchise as a bunch of hyper-macho nonsense that was way more interested in showing men in a boxing ring wail on each other rather than tell an actually compelling story. If the rest of the franchise is anything like Creed I think I’m ready to eat my hat. Going in I didn’t expect engaging story-telling, compelling character work, visceral direction and a heartfelt sense of earnesty. But, that is exactly what I got. Creed surprised me on almost every level and has set itself out as one of the best films of the year.

The film does start out a little sluggish, it takes it’s time setting up the character of Adonis ‘Donny’ Johnson, fleshing him for the majority of the first act. While it dragged a little, I see why it was necessary. Much like the character himself, the film needed to separate itself from the legacy of it’s predecessor before finally embracing it. It’s when Stallone’s Rocky Balboa, a semi-broken man longing after his lost love Adrian and estranged son, comes onto the scene that the film truly comes into it’s own.

As a newcomer to the franchise, I was surprised at how caught up in the world I got. I felt the loss that Rocky depicted, seeing a broken man both physically and emotionally. I will admit, I never knew that Adrian was the name of his wife and may have assumed that he had a gay-lover at some point. Even when that familiar theme started to swell I felt my blood pumping and my heart leaping, truly drawing me into the experience. This film does not only rely on nostalgia for the pre-existing franchise, however. It is fresh and visceral filmmaking at it’s finest, depicting the fights in particular in a brutal yet exciting fashion. Keep an eye out for one of Donny’s first major fights where half way through the scene you realise that it has been one single shot the entire time. Truly amazing stuff.

Creed is not just a cheap cash-in on a successful franchise. It is it’s own film, exciting and engaging to both new and old audiences, standing alone while also marrying beautifully with a rich, pre-existing history. Not overly convoluted, this is simple storytelling at its finest exhibiting itself with a full heart and packing a powerful punch.