Creed II Review
Later this week Creed III finally hits theaters and that means we are at the end of my review series in the Rocky/Creed franchise. Today we are talking about Creed II. What do I think about this movie? Is it a worthy sequel to Creed? Let’s find out!
The Good:
What I thought worked best about this movie is that it’s a character driven story. I would say this is probably the most character driven movie of the entire franchise. And they give each of our main characters a pretty fulfilling and moving character arc. In the original Creed, they set up that Adonis wants to escape his father’s legacy. So having the Dragos be the villains in this movie works at the next step in his journey. Because Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV. And so it gives Adonis this greater sense to win because he wants to beat a Dragon. He doesn’t want to end up like his father…dead. So the arc they give Adonis in this movie does have this emotional weight to it. As Adonis’ choices affect his relationship with Rocky, his adoptive mother, and his wife. So I just found Adonis’ arc to be very effective. And earlier I mentioned that Adonis’ choice in this movie affects the people around him, that’s a big theme in the movie. We explore how Rocky’s choices in his past affect him. Ivan Drago has a similar arc in this movie, where we do learn what happened to him after Rocky IV. So the big theme of the movie is how our choices can affect the people around us, and the movie does a great job of exploring that.
Since you really care about the characters in the movie, the fights in the movie are even more brutal. Where when Adonis gets hit, you feel it. You know it’s not good, you know that something bad could happen at this moment. Because Viktor Drago is about 50 pounds heavier than Adonis so you have this tension in the fights. But since we dive deeper into the Dragos and understand them more, when something bad happens to them you also feel it. I would also say that this is probably the movie that has the most emotional weight in the fight scenes.
Nothing here is that the cast here is just giving it their all and are delivering top notch performances. And Michael B. Jordan is just a very solid actor, he can play a variety of different emotions very well in this movie. When he needs to be upset, he can be upset and you buy it. When he needs to be kind of fun and jockey he can pull that off equally as well. You also get another great performance from Sylvester Stallone who just nails it. When this movie came out this was his seventh time playing the character over the course of 42 years. So he’s super familiar and comfortable with this character and knows how to deliver a great performance as the character.
Now let’s talk about Ivan and Viktor Drago. And I thought the way they were used in this movie really worked and made Ivan Drago a much better character. Like I said, they give him a character arc in the movie he does grow and change through-out the movie. But they still stay true to who Drago was in Rocky IV. Dolph Lundgren isn’t a great actor, he doesn’t have a lot of variety in his acting chops and so they don’t force this big dramatic performance out of it. They write about his abilities, but still manage to find a fulfilling character arc for him. And as you move into the finale, you really understand what is driving Drago. And in the finale some moments kind of tug at the heartstrings.
Finally, like the first film the movie does have a nice sense of humor about it. It’s probably not as funny as Creed but you do get some funny moments here and there. Some of the banter between Adonis and Rocky does put a smile on your face.
The Bad:
First thing here is that I thought Rocky’s arc was the weakest of the movie. Where I like the idea of his arc and where it ends up. And if this is the last time we see Rocky as Stallone has indicated he’s done with this franchise after this movie, I think it makes sense as the logical end point for his character. There were just some gaps in what’s said about this movie. And it ties back into some important plot points in Rocky Balboa that are resolved by the end of this movie. And so when you get to this movie, they kind of forget that it’s resolved and therefore it doesn’t make a lot of sense. You’re asking a couple of questions that the movie didn’t answer. And so while I liked the conclusion for his arc, I feel like it could have been better if there was some more set-up in the beginning of the movie.
Second thing here is that the middle act of the movie does drag a good bit. It’s a movie that is 2 hours and 10 minutes long, and I felt like they could have trimmed 10ish minutes from the middle act of the movie. And I’m not quite sure what those 10 minutes would be, but I think trimming it up might have helped the movie.
Finally, I’m not a boxing expert, this isn’t something that I’m super familiar with. But I do know that they match up competitors based on their size and height. And Viktor Drago is about 4 inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier then Adonis. So that side of the story didn’t make much sense because in real life, I don’t think they would actually be competing against each other. Sure they did that with Rocky and Ivan in Rocky IV, but that movie was made in the 80s and you can get away with that kind of stuff back then. But 2018 is not the 1980s.
Final Thoughts: Creed II is a solid sequel to the Creed that does a great job of exploring our characters. It has themes about how our choices can affect the people around us, and they have each character explore that theme. The fights are brutal and it’s fun to see Ivan Drago again. Now it’s not a perfect sequel, it has some flaws with Rocky’s arc, the runtime, and some logic issues but overall it’s a good sequel.
The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)
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