Creed II

Decent enough, but adheres far too rigidly to the Rocky template

I have not met one person who didn't like a Rocky movie.

• Steven Caple Jr.; "How Creed II Director Crafted His Rocky IV Successor" (Mia Galuppo); The Hollywood Reporter (November 21, 2018)

Ryan Coogler's Creed (2015) was probably the best of the remakequels (ostensible sequels that are, for all intents and purposes, remakes) that came out in the mid-2010s (the most obvious ones being J.J Abrams's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World, and Adam Wingard's Blair Witch), and was the first Rocky film not written by Sylvester Stallone, and not directed by either Stallone or John G. Avildsen. After Rocky Balboa did th...

I finally got around to this, and I think my issue with it is Adonis Creed.

I kind of passed it over in the first one, because, honestly, it was just nice to see another Rocky movie, and you did see Creed train and fight and struggle a bit.

What we have is a kid that grew up an orphan, but at a young age got adopted into a life of privilege, had a good job, and didn't have to struggle financially, until he kind of did when he wanted to become a full time boxer... and then the story takes off.

And that was all passable, because he didn't exactly win did he? It was a hard fought first movie and he still had to go through a pretty tough arch to get to where he was that was both interesting and compelling... so despite the relative fla...

Creed II takes pieces of the previous Rocky stories and is able to completely transform them into a better, more emotional story that can easily resonate with audiences.

If I have one big complaint about this installment, it would be that the script steals almost every single story beat from Rocky IV. But, at the same time, that is one of the most interesting aspects. Rocky IV had so much potential to be an emotionally impactful movie but failed to capture that tone due to the 80s camp that was heavily featured. In Creed II, we get to see the fallout of the fight between Rocky and Drago. Where Rocky went on to be a national treasure in retirement, Drago met a worse fate in Russia. His wife left him, his country turned its back on him, an...

I like the 1st Creed alot. This one though is trying to be to much like the old rocky movie. He said he wants to be his own fighter. Yet the stories are just like the rocky movies.

This is the son of the grudge match, and it pitches the now reigning champion Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) against Viktor (Florian Munteau). Now this latter guy is the son of the Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and Mrs. Drago (Brigitte Nielsen) who got thumped by Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) way back in 1985, remember? Well now the son wants a crack at the the champ, only this time coach Rocky thinks its a mistake to take the fight and leaves his charge to go it alone. Messy eh? Well of course it needs a rematch, but will coach come back to help Adonis keep his crown? The fight sequences are pretty good here, but the rest of it is really quite mediocre. Jordan is easy on the eye and has clearly done the work to come across as a plausible fighter, but th...