Creed II

I loved 2015’s Creed! Ryan Coogler did a phenomenal job at laying the foundation for a new line of Rocky films, and Michael B. Jordan took the torch and ran with it as Apollo Creed’s secret son, Adonis Johnson. I loved the story it told where Johnson tracked down his father’s legendary rival, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to be his trainer and the road those two traveled in Creed was an engaging journey throughout. Adonis/Donnie’s story left off in Creed much like the inaugural Rocky where Adonis was the surprise underdog that provided a hell of a fight against the world champion and came within inches of tasting championship gold. For the sequel in 2018’s Creed II (trailer), Donnie wants to pick up where he left off and establish his legacy as the greatest ever. That destiny meets a standstill when an old rival of Balboa has his own protégé that is just as hungry as Donnie.

I saw the initial teaser for Creed II and I could not help myself and get nostalgic for the uber-patriotic Rocky IV that saw Balboa crush communism and bring forth world peace! Embellishing aside, I was ecstatic to see Dolph Lundgren return to portray Rocky’s iconic Russian rival, Ivan Drago. Ivan has been training his son, Viktor (Florian Munteanu) for years as he rose through the ranks of the Ukranian boxing scene. The Dragos were banned from Russia after Ivan’s defeat, and now the two want the payback they feel they rightly deserve by conquering Rocky’s prized pupil. That is a fantastic setup, but unfortunately there are some pacing issues that prevents it from being the ultimate cinematic grudge match.

As I stated in the intro, Coogler was aces in establishing the groundwork for Donnie’s story in the first Creed which is essentially a retelling of the original Rocky for the next generation. Creed II director, Steven Caple Jr. bites a little too much off here by attempting to paste together and contemporize the core arcs of Rocky II through IV. In Rocky II, Balboa and Adrian get married, have a kid and Rocky wins the world title. In Rocky III, Balboa gets full of himself as a dominant champion and suffers a humiliating loss early on. Those two arcs transpire for Donnie in the first half of Creed II’s two hour and ten minute runtime. Donnie wins the title right at the beginning of the film and shortly thereafter proposes to his girlfriend Tessa (Bianca) and they soon after find out they are expecting. An overconfident Donnie is no match for a brooding Viktor who lays waste to Johnson and delivers a crushing beating that absolutely guts Donnie. That sets the stage for the ultimate rematch with Donnie and Viktor in Mother Russia, complete with overblown entrances just like in Rocky IV!

I am not going to lie, but I was a little tepid going into this for my second viewing remembering how they tried to cram too much in. Other than a couple little parts in the opening hour where it is apparent the pacing is too fast, the overall pacing wound up not being as bad as I remembered. A lot of that is attributed to when Creed II finds its footing when Donnie and Viktor first clash in the ring. From there Creed II hits home how devastated Adonis is after the loss and at establishing his path to recovery and also now being a father. I loved the scenes where he finds fatherhood at the gym and how he reconciles with Rocky. This is successfully followed up with the obligatory must-see feel good training montage where Balboa takes Donnie to rediscover himself with an intense desert training camp to recapture the ‘eye of the tiger.’ The final fight between Donnie and Viktor is a terrific ode to the Rocky/Ivan duel. It is an epic, ten round bout, and the thrilling cinematography for it had me as invested as the memorable fights in the first Creed film.

There is a little under an hour of extras included. I would highly recommend diving into the ten minutes of deleted scenes first. There are two scenes there I think could have greatly benefitted the film where Balboa gives a eulogy for his old nemesis, Spider Rico and another that has Donnie and Rocky share mutual respect with the Dragos after their second fight. There are three bonuses all under ten minutes that provide decent character profiles of Viktor, Tessa and establishing the father/son theme of the film. Those three are decent, but I would recommend Rocky’s Legacy as the other must-see extra, which is a great 15-minute piece hosted by Lundgren where he spotlights the Rocky franchise’s classic moments and he later joins Stallone to relive and banter through their epic Rocky IV encounter. I would have loved a feature commentary track with Stallone, Jordan, Lungdren and Florian, but the interviews provided here are a decent substitute.

While Creed II is without a doubt a couple notches under the first film, it provided a better second viewing experience than I anticipated. It quickly recovers from the stumbles in the first half of the film for a truly awesome second half. I am still perplexed as to what happened to the affable Stepps and Marie characters that Rocky Balboa introduced, but was relieved to see one other forgotten character from a prior film make a heartfelt cameo. With that aside out of the way, I feel safe saying Creed II meets the high bar set for the franchise in quality of training montages, epic fights, powerful feel-good moments and eventually comes together as a film worthy of the Rocky/Creed pedigree.



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