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Director: Ryan Coogler

Writers: Ryan Coogler, Aaron Covington

Runtime: 132 min

Main Cast:

• Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Johnson
• Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa
• Tessa Thompson as Bianca
• Phylicia Rashad as Mary Anne Creed

Review: by Mia

I went into Creed wishing I had re-watched the Rocky franchise; hoping I remembered enough to keep whatever story I was about to receive compelling and understandable. I was already familiar with the screenwriter/director Ryan Coogler as well as actor Michael B. Jordan and had high hopes for what each would bring to the table. Coogler had already proved that he could convey an authentic black experience set in a diversified world while bringing to the audience emotion and development. Michael B. Jordan had already proven that he was a conduit for that type of writing. Seeing the two team up for a second time was something I was really anticipating. I am a fan of Fruitvale Station. The story was composed and presented in a way that gave the highest emotional impact. I was hoping for the same from Creed, but I wasn’t sure how it would be accomplished in a story that picked up so long after a character and classic like Rocky’s glory days.

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Since the story was shifting perspectives to the son of Apollo Creed living and fighting in 2015, I also expected a different approach to fighting that rivaled Rocky’s but spoke for itself in the Creed family.The movie centers around Apollo Creed’s youngest son, an illegitimate child who lost his father before he was born and his mother at a very young age. Adonis is taken in by Apollo Creed’s wife and raised to be a successful and responsible businessman. However, from a young age Adonis has the spirit and the compulsion to prove himself with his fists and that doesn’t fade as he enters his early twenties. He abandons his white collar occupation in favor of following in his father’s footsteps and receives no support from those around him, including his adoptive mother who fears she will lose him the same way that she lost her husband.

So Adonis leaves his home in favor of Philadelphia to train and make a name for himself as Adonis Johnson. He has never shared a last name with his father and he isn’t interested in taking on the name simply to further himself in the fighting world. He makes himself known only to Rocky, who is a retired fighter and trainer who owns a restaurant in the city. Its only a matter of time before Rocky is compelled to come out of retirement and train the one fighter who was able to bring out the most in his own spirit.

Throughout the film, the love and admiration for Apollo Creed is apparent. His family, friends, and fans all remember him with an honest telling of his greatness and his shortcomings. This is important for Adonis, who never met his father and has never truly felt like he could acknowledge himself as a part of Apollo Creed that lives on. Still, he is determined to prove himself and does in a true Rocky fashion.

Needless to say, the Rocky story-line was successfully brought into the 21st century. The film feels authentically 2015 in how it integrates style, music, technology, and culture into the story. The story also supplies something genuine and newly presented in mainstream film when expressing black culture on the screen. Although it can be argued that there was room for more, I think it can be acknowledged that effort was put into showing a real and usually overlooked area of urban life and black communities.

Sylvester Stallone brings a compelling new perspective of Rocky to the story as well. He keeps up with the emotion and turmoil laced throughout the plot. Both characters face a fight of their life and it isn’t their first. They band together and feed one another’s spirit until triumph.

Cinematically, I was very impressed with the execution of the film. The “everyday life” scenes were given in a way that put the audience in the room while the fights and the training put you in the front row just outside of the ring rooting for boxers and watching the fight as if it were a real fight night, whether you got the sitting in the arena or the pay-per-view experience. This was not an easy feat. The blows were real. You flinched, you cheered, you were pulled into the energy of the boxers. And Adonis Creed, because eventually he takes on the name, is not up against any run of the mill fighter. He is the underdog, the impossible all odds against him challenger to the undefeated champion. This is clear every round and every moment of training.

Images Courtesy of IMDB