Creed II (2018) Movie Review

Creed II (2018) Movie Review

I’ve finally realized how much I’ve taken the Rocky series for granted. I watched the original movie years ago (my ancient review of it is posted somewhere on this site), and sometime years before that I had seen Rocky III on TV. In the fall of 2017, I saw IV, and just this past spring I watched the first Creed (that leaves Rocky II, V, and Balboa as the ones which I have not indulged in). And now I have seen Creed II. It’s obviously a good movie – I was expecting it to be – and it delivered. It manages to be both formulaic and complicated at the same time, but ultimately it has enough crowd-pleasing material, something for almost every crowd. Creed II doesn’t rely too much on nostalgia. There are throwback moments, but they aren’t overdone. There’s also too much ground covered here for there not to be a third Creed film.

There’s a lot going on in Creed II. Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is now the heavyweight champion of the world, backed by Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and Bianca (Tessa Thompson), his singer girlfriend who has hearing problems. He has to balance boxing and family life and seems angst-ridden literally all the time. Like, dude, get it together. But yeah life is tough and rough, and so is the weird wonderful world of boxing. Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who is a Soviet and whose nickname is “Death From Above” according to Wikipedia, goes over to America with his son Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) to challenge Creed to a fight. It’s tense between Rocky and Ivan and they all have conflict. The plot is fairly similar to that of Rocky IV (1985), which makes sense, because this is as much of a sequel to that movie as it is to Creed (2015).

Sometimes it seems like the movie tries a little too hard to have lots of themes and good messages. I don’t think it really ended up making the quality of the film worse, but it is noticeable (at least I noticed it). They try to throw all kinds of themes of family and being yourself and stuff like that at you, and at times it feels a little like please stop, overachievement is not necessary here. But like I said, the movie doesn’t really lose much because of it. Something that I feel like actually does take away from the quality is the somewhat choppy and undercooked dialogue, especially in the first half of the movie. I’m not gonna spoil anything, but during a major emotional scene, all anybody really says is “yo” and it is just very awkward. So that’s a low point. It’s especially strange because the dialogue feels kinda weak, but the acting is strong, so they compliment each other in a really strange way. It’s like watching a bunch of good actors try their hardest to make some mediocre-level talking sound better than it is.

That being said, there’s not a whole lot to simply complain about. There are a few plot holes that I can’t really get into for spoiler’s sake, but other than that and the weird dialogue early on, I actually really did enjoy Creed II. The acting, technical work, and effects (especially those sound effects, why were they so good) are all magnificent. There’s one point where Creed walks into the ring, and his entrance song is “Icon” by Jaden Smith, and it just sounds so great. Even better is during the final fight when Creed starts to win against Viktor and the Rocky theme starts up, and it’s the absolute perfect moment for it. I was glad to see that they didn’t go overboard playing the theme all the time, because I feel like that would’ve gone a little too far towards simply homaging everything about past films. Compared to those past films, Creed II isn’t necessarily a weaker entry in the series. I would say it’s about as good as the first Creed movie. I liked Creed when I saw it but it didn’t blow my mind, and that’s kinda how I felt about this one too. Come to think of it I really haven’t seen a Rocky movie that I didn’t like.

I will say that I am looking forward to seeing what Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and honestly Sylvester Stallone will be up to in the future. Jordan has mostly been in PG-13 action movies since breaking through with Chronicle and Fruitvale Station. Surprisingly enough, he was also in The Wire, which I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years. Tessa Thompson was just in Thor: Ragnarok (I even saw that movie and I still can’t spell “Ragnarok”) and Sorry to Bother You, so I don’t foresee her career slowing down any time soon. And man I just hope Sylvester Stallone sticks around because he’s just so much fun.

Safety Chart:

Violence: 3.5/10 - Well I mean there’s like boxing, so lots of punching, some blood. Not much besides that.

Language: 4.5/10 - “Urban dialogue.”

Drinking/Smoking: 4/10 - Some drinking.

Creed II is a fun, exciting sports movie that sometimes becomes formulaic, especially compared to the plots of previous Rocky films, which it borrows heavily from. Not necessarily a bad thing, but still. Some may complain that it doesn’t feel the same without Ryan Coogler, which it doesn’t, but I really do feel like the new director, Steven Caple Jr., handled the film excellently. But it really is enjoyable and has some depth, so I’m giving Creed II a B+ as a grade. I must say I was relieved to see that “Eye of the Tiger” doesn’t make any appearance.