Who doesn’t like Rocky? Whether the character, Sylvester Stallone, or the movie itself, it has become the literal word of motivation whether someone thinks of a something really inspiring. Made in 1976 with an incredibly low budget and with the risk of putting man of focus Stallone out of house and home permanently without success, the film was a massive surprise hit, earning all kinds of appraisals and awards and turning Stallone from a low budget underground name to a famous star. With success comes repetition however and the Rocky films turned into a very confused and growing sillier franchise, to the point where it was left alone for a good while. Then newcomer director Ryan Coogler stated in 2013 that he would be creating a spin-off of the Rocky franchise. Even though spin-offs are usually treated with disgust, the audience was pleasantly surprised to discover that, much like poetic irony, the film was a big hit as well, showing us that Ryan Coogler was capable director, but that Rocky was back in a good way. Years after the events of Rocky, a young man named Adonis (played by Michael B Jordan) wishes to become a fighter like his late father Apollo Creed who died in the ring. Going to his old best friend, Rocky Balboa (played again by Sylvester Stallone), he finds that his life has turned sad and lonely with the departure of all his loved ones and that he wants nothing to do with boxing anymore. But with enough encouragement, he convinces him to become his Mickey and together the two grow into a student teacher pair and Adonis starts to become more adapt as a boxer. With the news that he is related to the once famous championship boxer, he is asked to fight by a champion of another country and the pace is on to see which one will come out on top. Despite the film issues, for an essential reboot to the Rocky franchise, this is a pretty good film.

For a movie to reboot a franchise like Rocky which does a great job at using a simplistic goal and making it interesting by fuelling it with real world struggles and fears, this movie needed to have a similar enough flair to feel like its in the same universe, but avoid becoming a complete rip-off and thankfully the film succeeds at this. Ryan Coogler does a pretty good job create an environment that feels updated from the Rocky universe but has that typical realism that was evident throughout that film. It does not suffer when it calls back to anything from the previous films, it feels like it is an evolved world and characters while still definitely being its own thing with its own style. It feels far cleaner and more professional compared to the other films, making the overall picture very much like the film in that it is a newcomer reigning in older fame. It has the typical beats of a standard underdog story but has enough character moments and breathing time to allow the focus to remain important. With that said, though the movie does try to recapture the similar simplistic theme, in an ironic way its attempts to make it more complex makes it harder to follow. The exposition for the film is pretty bad, some of the character motivations either have no pay off, come out of nowhere or change out of nowhere, and this when a storytelling leads to things becoming more confusing and unclear than complex. Also the final fight doesn’t have any effective build-up or tension for it as the stakes are not that strong, the final resolution is pretty unclear and the way it ends doesn’t really matter as the main character doesn’t have much to lose if he fails.

For a character to follow up with someone as connectable and iconic as Rocky Balboa, Adonis Creed is honestly a good idea for a focus. Having him be the son of one of the previous film’s character is a hint cliched, but works a serviceable motivational point for the character and it also allows for some moments of emotional baggage between him and Rocky to have that extra bit of punch as the history is clear. Even though he thankfully is not a carbon copy of Rocky, he is also incredibly hard to define. While he is still a decent person to follow, he is a character that incredibly hard to pin down and find consistent attributes; he appears to have control issues in moments yet seems completely fine and stable in the rest of the film, doesn’t appear to be an underdog or even that bad at boxing yet is looked down upon by practically everybody, and doesn’t want to be kept in his father’s shadow, yet the reasoning for why keeps changing literally until the final fight. What saves this messy handling is Michael B Jordan’s performance, which allows the character to be incredibly charming and passionate, but still emotional enough to feel a bit loose. Rocky is thankfully handled a bit better, while his role in the film isn’t full of too much stuff, his involvement doesn’t feel too forced, it is a nice direction, he and Jordan work well off each other, and even though its tragic to see what a famous icon has come too, its interesting to see where that lifestyle took him. Tessa Thompson as the girlfriend is also pretty good and shares some legitimately nice moments with Jordan even if the film does not seem to know what to do with her.

With the film crisper and less dirty look to it, the film does again have a nice style to its own that does not feel like it trying to recreate any specific moments or famous scenes from the previous films. It has similar moments, but they never feel like rip-offs, they feel like touching send ups and that is a how a follow-up of this sort should handle moments like it. The film technology also helps in given the film a much more unique feel, as the updates with technology, music and attitudes to the world helps to flesh it out as more modern. The environment is much more current ghetto like, and the film’s handling of its shots allows for its own feel as well. The filming overall is very well handled, but the use of specific shots during the actions scenes really leave their mark throughout the whole franchise. The montage is not shot like an 80s music video, instead its feels like a modern music video worth faster shots, more slow-mo, and a far more focused camera. The tracking shots used for the fight scenes helps the action feel extra impactful as it feels more personal and close; the audience picks up on every punch, every duck and dodge and every hit is felt because of this choose, and it helps to separate it from the previous film’s more over-the-head form of cinematography. The music was never going to beat the famous score composed by Bill Conti and even though the film’s soundtrack does feel a bit forgettable when it has current techno, the moments included orchestral music does capture the similar motivational feel.

Creed was a risky move that thankfully paid off with good talent, planning and pay off. Though it’s not the film’s flaw, there is a barrier that will unfortunately never be reached when trying to replicate the first film. With a film that felt so personal and real that it has not dated a bit and will always be the literal definition of an underdog story, Rocky will also go down in the cinema history books. But fortunately, the people behind the film were aware of this and clearly had respect for the old classic, so instead of trying to remake, he decided to follow up in a different but recognisable way. The film is nowhere close to flawless as the story could have been a bit more concrete in its decisions and chosen a specific direction and the conclusion needed to be way more impactful, but with some great performances, very good directing and nice update to a beloved treasure, Creed is certainly no underdog. Whether this franchise is gonna fly as high as its previous, it will no doubt create its own mark.