Rocky Balboa passes on the baton: A Creed movie review.
Just how many Rocky Movies are there?
That would be seven. Six if you skip over that one we don’t talk about. Then came along Rocky Balboa, which tied up the whole series, and now we have the seventh installment of the Sylvester Stallone underdog boxing franchise. And you know what? I think it is a damn good movie.
Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) didn’t have the easiest childhood. Fighting is in his blood, literally. It’s how the film starts. Fast forward to him as an adult, we see him having a soul-sucking corporate job. Obviously, the job pays well, but it’s not what he wants to do. So he quits and goes to Philadelphia to find his “uncle,” Rocky Balboa. With as close as Rocky and Apollo once were, it only seems fitting he would seek out his father’s former foe. Adonis finds Rocky at his restaurant and wants hire him as a trainer. The Italian Stallion is reluctant at first. He’s old, and tired and just doesn’t want to go through this again. It takes some convincing, but Rocky finally agrees to train the son of his most iconic rival. Or is Ivan Drago his most iconic rival? Some would say it is Mr. T. For the sake of this article, there is no better 80s classic duel Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed.
All of the training montages in Creed are done so wonderfully. It’s a complete homage to the original. Everything that the young Rocky went through, Adonis goes through. They even redo the classic running scene, with a modern twist to appeal to the modern-day generation. I can hear the Rocky theme song, “Gonna Fly Now,” by Bill Conti, and the screaming trumpet of Maynard Ferguson and suddenly I have the urge to get off my butt and run up some stairs.
And the love interest is great. The way she was written makes the story more human. Not that she is butt-ugly or anything, but she’s not 100% perfect. But Adonis sees the beauty in her, the exact same way Rocky saw the beauty in Adrian the second he saw her.
The way Rocky pushes Adonis to find his own inner strength is just so moving. There is a scene where they are in front of the mirror at the gym and Rocky says to Adonis, “This is who you are fighting, the guy in the ring is just in your way.” Like any good teacher will tell, they learn as much form the student as the student learns from them. In this way, Adonis pushes Rocky to better himself. Something happens, I won’t say what, but Rocky just completely wants to give up. He feels that he has nothing, despite taking Adonis under his tutelage. When Rocky is about to throw in the towel, Andonis says to Rocky, “You can’t give up. If I’m gonna keep fighting, then you have to keep fighting!” The symbolism is great.
When the final fight of the movie happens, Adonis’s opponent comes out darkness and through fire.
Perhaps inspired by the showmanship of modern day MMA and the larger than life theatrics of UFC, it is totally symbolic to show that this is a bad guy. If this were a western, he would have been dressed head to toe in black, and tumbleweeds would have been scared to let roll past the dust at his feet. Bad guy numero uño only has a few minutes of screen time, but he really makes you hate him. Like, not a little bit hate him. I mean REALLY fucking hate him. He’s an such arrogant asshole! Any actor that can make you hate them in such a limited amount of time deserves some type of award.
This movie has so many messages. Love is a main theme throughout the entire 90+ minutes of Creed. What we have are these relatable but imperfect characters. Self-worth is another major theme of the movie. At the beginning, Adonis wants to use his mother’s name of Johnson because he say’s he “doesn’t want to live in his father’s shadow,” but ultimately he didn’t feel worthy to have the name of Creed. And the importance of family rounds out the major messages Stallone penned into the movie. Sometimes your family isn’t always the one that we are born into. Sometimes people come into our lives that can be closer than we are with our own relatives. At the end of the movie, Adonis wins so much more than he could ever win inside the ring.
If you have been too busy over the holidays to get out and see Creed, I would highly recommend it. Now that you’ve gone to a galaxy far away and seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, come back to Philadelphia and cheer for underdog again. Creed the movie can win over the most cynical person. It reminds me of the original… and let’s just not about that one Rocky movie… Go see Creed or get it on Netflix soon.
I haven’t seen “Creed,” yet. But will rush out to see it ! This reviewer is fantastic!
thanks for the comment. let us know what film you’d like me to review. hope you keep reading my stuff