In anticipation of watching Creed, I revisited the original Rocky film for the first time in many years. Maybe it was tainted by the increasingly awful sequels, but I was surprised to find it was much better than I remembered, with a typical 1970’s grittiness and an ending that really worked. Having said that, I’m not changing my mind that it was ridiculous that it won the best film Oscar in a year that also had All the President’s Men, Network, Taxi Driver, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Assault on Precinct 13 and Marathon Man released!
In the first film, Rocky fought heroically against the world champion, Apollo Creed, despite being a lowly ranked fighter. In Creed, it is Apollo Creed’s son who is the young up and coming fighter prematurely elevated to a world title contender. It does nicely mirror the original film but I found the explanation for the match being made no more convincing this time around. The new movie tries to stick with the template of the original in other ways too, with mixed results.
The portrayal of the poor suburbs of Philadelphia, areas that don’t seem to have moved of for 40 years, is impressive thanks to some excellent cinematography by Maryse Alberti. However, the attempts to recreate Rocky’s sweet burgeoning relationship with Adrian with Apollo’s dating his neighbour Bianca is the most disappointing part of the film. Predictable and lacking any chemistry, those scenes could have easily be left on the cutting room floor.
Otherwise, Michael B Jordan is very good as Creed, but above all, however, it is Sylvester Stallone’s reprisal of his role that steals the movie. Giving a performance that I didn’t think he had in him, mixing his sheer physicality with a sense of vulnerability, the awards will, I am sure, continue to roll in.
Well helmed by the promising Ryan Coogler, and with a satisfying ending, this is much better than I expected when I first heard about it being made.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10