We are used to films getting up to their 7th installment in a series now. Fast and the Furious has done it, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Die Hard isn’t far behind nor is Terminator. Probably the longest running (James Bond) franchise is about a boxer from Philadelphia; Robert ‘Rocky’ Balboa.
Since the 1970’s, Sylvester Stallone’s lovable simpleton has delivered some of the most memorable moments and musical scores in film. It also invented the montage, a trope now used by hundreds of movies. Over the decades the series has faltered slightly, mostly due to the flailing age of its leading man.
Almost out of nowhere like a perfect jab comes ‘Creed’, a sequel/spinoff in the Rocky legacy that focuses on Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Johnson-Creed, son of Apollo Creed, the antagonist come best friend of Rocky throughout the first three installments, who dies in the ring at the start of Rocky 4. Adonis ‘Donnie’ moves to Philadelphia to enlist Rocky to be his mentor and trainer, to which Rocky is initially wary about.
After careful consideration and the right amount of pondering screen-time, Rocky returns to the training centre he made famous and takes Donnie under his wing, and it isn’t long until they both must face almost insurmountable odds in the fight of their lives, both in and out of the ring.
You don’t need to be a fan of boxing to like this film; all encompassing and for what it is trying to achieve, I cannot fault this movie. The only thing I didn’t like about the whole thing was Rocky’s annoying trilby hat. The acting is dynamic and punchy (couldn’t help a pun) the cinematography is as impressive as it is inventive, great use of soundtrack and slow motion and also favouring a lot of ‘one-shot’ sequences, including an entire fight with a camera orbit that does not cut once during it; which is mind-bendingly good.
It is cathartic to have the movie classically climax with the big fight, that ‘Rocky’ theme and what looks to be an actual live boxing match, Michael B. Jordan famously admitting he took real punches for the sake of a good shot – well worth it mate. Relative newbie Director Ryan Coggler has masterfully crafted a rebirth into a well loved and admired series, and is now rumoured to be at the helm of the ‘Black Panther’ movie for Marvel.
With great emphasis and creativity on character motivation and development, and Sly Stallone essentially ‘passing the torch’ there could (and based off Creed – should) be more installments to come, and as we’ve shown in the past with a slew of other film series’, I think we’d be ok with that.
