Creed II
- Aditya Kharbanda
- May 22, 2021
- 4 min read
Creed II is an American Boxing/sports-drama film starring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone and Tessa Thompson among many others. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and screenplay by Sylvester Stallone himself, Creed II was released in 2018 as a sequel to Creed I, another installment in the Rocky Balboa universe. The film is about the journey of Donnie Creed, played by Jordan, as he struggles to choose between having a comfortable life and defending the legacy of his father, another legendary boxer.
IMDb: 7.1/10 ; Rotten Tomatoes: 83% fresh.
My Opinion:
I hadn't watched a boxing/drama film in a long while, until two weeks back when I finally watched a 2 year old film, Creed II. And to be fair, I wasn't impressed. Let me explain.
As I geared up to watch this film, I was really excited to see Michael B. Jordan in a fighter's role. Since I had just seen "THAT AWKWARD MOMENT", a comedy starring Jordan again, and the fact that I was going to see him again but in a completely different shape was exciting. We get a classic U.S. vs the Soviet Union vibe from this film, as Donnie Creed takes on Viktor Drago, son of Soviet boxer Ivan Drago (Ivan Drago was seen previously in Rocky Balboa films. he killed Donnie's father Apollo Creed, an American Boxer, who was being coached by none other than Rocky himself). Let's talk about the good parts of the movie first and then conclude with why I didn't like this movie.
The Good Part:
Talking about the direction of the film, Steven Caple Jr. has done a good job showing the important aspects of the film, the emotions of the protagonist and the supporting cast around him. The way he has shown the training and the boxing scenes is really good and definitely lives up to the hype. The Character development of the film is effortless since most of the characters have already been introduced in Creed I.
Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone have done a fantastic job as well, completely living up to the expectations and the depth of their respective characters. Sylvester Stallone has been playing the all time classic role of Rocky Balboa for all these years. But, we all knew that he won't be able to do that shiny, savvy, hard-working and over-achieving Rocky Balboa forever as he grew older. So, he's turned into the classic 'Coach' that every typical sports movie has.
Michael B. Jordan, on the other hand, is in perfect shape and has done a remarkable job of giving life to his character, Donnie Creed. Jordan is known as one of, if not, the most good looking Hollywood actor of current times and he definitely lives up to that reputation in the film. His body language exudes the hunger to achieve and the 'win it all' attitude perfectly, which is a very tough job to maintain over a course of a 2hr film.
The Film has a powerful music track and gives you the vibes to just leave whatever you're doing and hit the gym. It really gives a lot more power and boost to the emotion of the film and screams, "I am a boxing film" in all means possible.
While we're on the topic of music, Tessa Thompson has done an amazing job playing the role of Bianca Taylor, a rising singer and Donnie's girlfriend, and looks beautiful as always. Her character in the film is deaf and she wears a hearing implant every-time she's in the scene. She really contributes to the emotional side of the film and seems perfect in her character.
The Not-so-Good Part:
All said and done, I had just one little wish from this movie: "Don't be like all the other typical boxing movies, please be different." And now you know why I wasn't impressed after watching this movie.
an overconfident boxer loses a fight, realizes his mistakes, changes his attitude towards life in general, trains harder under a coach who's personal life is miserable or, has major personal problems, and wins his last fight
I just described Creed II and many other boxing films in one sentence. I had a lot of expectations from this movie and most importantly, its story!! The film failed me at the script part, it is the exact same plot as EVERY OTHER BOXING FILM. I understand that this 'tried and tested' boxing plot has helped films earn a fair amount of money all these years and I'm sure it'll continue to do so, since people don't seem to change their taste, but I was expecting a lot more from this film since it had two of my favorite actors, Stallone and Jordan (if you haven't realized it yet), and it still went for the old classic plot. After watching the film, I was high on emotions, obviously, because of the last fight, but deep inside, I felt betrayed because of how much Predictable the film was. I've liked boxing films before, for example, I absolutely love the Undisputed series. It's one of my top 10 movies all time! But I feel I'm way over the classic boxing plot for now.
Final Take:
After watching the film, I was confident enough that I could write my own boxing/drama script and make millions out of it. All I had to do was mould the story a little bit according to me, keeping the rest of the things same and boom I would've got my script. Now don't get me wrong, the actors, the director and everyone else have done a fantastic job. And I know making a boxing movie is tough. Michael B. Jordan is known for doing his fight scenes on his own and mark my words he's become a perfectionist in it. It's just that I've got issues with the script itself.
I end this review by saying that you should definitely watch the film if you're fairly new to boxing films or, are trying to get into boxing films. But, if you're like me and you've already watched so many boxing films, I believe it would do you no harm to skip this one.
My rating: 6.5/10
Other reviews by me :La La Land (wixsite.com)
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