Creed is directed by Ryan Coogler and is the seventh instalment in the Rocky franchise, starring Michael B Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. Jordan plays "Donnie" Creed, a young man who wishes to follow in his father Apollo's footsteps of becoming a successful boxer whilst trying to carve out his own legacy on the sport. His pursuit of his goal brings him to an aged Rocky Balboa, played by Stallone, who comes out of retirement to train the young protégé and teach him how to be successful in the ring.
Despite not being well immersed into the Rocky franchise or boxing movies in general, Creed utterly blew me away. Like Rush did a few years ago, Creed purposefully makes the sport come second to our main characters, their motivations and the relationships which spawn between them. I say this all the time but for a movie to be great you have to give us great characters, and in Creed that is exactly what the filmmakers managed to accomplish, helped by some truly real and emotionally powerful performances.
I think its fair to say that Michael B Jordan can well and truly wipe away the sh*t stain that is Fant4stic off of his filmography as his turn in Creed as young Donnie is incredible. His performance encapsulates everything a main character should be in a film. He is a vulnerable hero, he loses, he gets beaten down, he makes mistakes, he has personality faults which sometimes enter the ring with him. He's a well-rounded, likeable character who you want to see succeed simply because he's not this perfect person who wins all of the time.
I often find that romances in movies tend to detract from the important plot points of the movie. Thankfully, I didn't feel like that in Creed. I loved the character of Bianca and bought into the relationship that blossoms between her and Donnie. One particular aspect of the way her character was written which I really appreciated was the parallels made between her and Donnie. Both characters feel like they would naturally gravitate towards each other as they're both in a similar situation in their lives. Both are trying to find their passion and their place in the world. Like Donnie, Bianca has faults as well and their relationship was believable and I actually cared about it.
But I have to be honest when I say that Sylvester Stallone's performance as Rocky is not only worthy of an Oscar nomination (which he did in fact receive), it's worthy of the golden statue itself. He is the only actor this year who brought me to genuine man tears with his performance, I'm not exaggerating. The way Rocky is in Creed is very similar to how Han Solo is portrayed in The Force Awakens. It's not just an older Stallone coming back to play young Rocky again, you feel as if the character has grown and matured off screen. He's a different character at this point and Stallone proves this is the one role he was born to play.
Creed is also one of the best written films of the year with one of my favourite screenplays. The script takes time to flesh out its characters to the point where they're so compelling they feel as if they're actual people living in this world. It develops characters organically and understands character motivation very well. You understand why people like Donnie or Rocky would gravitate towards each other at this point in their lives. Not only that, it understands motivation for characters with less screen time i.e. people like Bianca or even Ricky Conlan, the Scouser Donnie fights at the end of the film. The screenplay also has a great sense of humour.
However, none of this would have been possible if it weren't for the vision of director Ryan Coogler, who brought this story which he came up with himself onto the big screen in all of its glory. There is one boxing sequence in particular which was done in one tracking shot, during which the camera movements, the stunt choreography and the stunt work itself (done by the actors I should add) was astounding. This particular fight blew any fight seen in Southpaw from earlier on in the year out of the water as it is helmed less stylistically. Here, the hits land harder and the punches are more impactful, immersing you into the intensity of the moment.
The final boxing match of the movie is intense and the way the build up to the fight is written engages you as a viewer and gets you understand how high the stakes have become. Its definitely not as well helmed as the first fight in this film but I still enjoyed watching it and enjoyed the pay off which we ultimately receive. I feel as if the final fight isn't as intense as the fight towards the half way mark of the film as it switches between a first hand view of the fight to a more stylistic, TV coverage type way of shooting it. I'd have preferred if it were shot the way the first fight was, but understand the choice the filmmakers made.
Creed is an excellent film with great acting performances and compelling characters you want to watch. It's a fascinating, engaging tale of the master boxer returning to fill a hole in his life and the young protégé who wants to make his mark on the world on his own back doing the thing he loves the most. As a drama it does everything brilliantly, and I can't recommend it enough:
Rating - A
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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