Creed II

A WORTHY SEQUEL OR JUST ANOTHER ROCKY IV?

Well, in this day and age, it's really difficult for a 'Rocky IV' to get made.

For those who don't understand what that movie means or represents, basically Rocky managed to end the Cold War by winning a boxing match and making a motivational speech after beating Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) of the Soviet Union.

Yes, that ridiculous.

When I heard they were bringing Drago back for the sequel to the very successful and critically-acclaimed Creed (2015), I was a little worried but I'm glad they managed to ground the characters a lot more and make them more human and less machine/cardboard box of a character.

In retrospect, it actually makes a lot of sense to bring Drago back for this movie. He now has a son, Viktor (Florian 'Big Nasty' Munteanu) who is brought up in very harsh circumstances following his father's failure over 30 years ago.

He's trained hard and tough to become an even better fighter than his father was, and after noticing Adonis Creed's (Michael B. Jordan) rise to become Light Heavyweight champion of the world, he issues a challenge to him.

For those who don't know, Ivan Drago killed Adonis' father in the ring in Rocky IV, and to put their sons head to head for this fight really upped the stakes for this sequel.

I'll talk about that later on. Let's delve into the negatives first.

For one, Creed II is incredibly formulaic, filled to the brim with nods to old movies and characters to a point where they felt forced.

It also feels like a mash-up of past Rocky movies all merged into one package, with very little fresh ideas brought to the table.

At least with the first movie, the director decided to take some fresh steps with incorporating some innovative filming techniques to shoot some of the fights (e.g. that long continuous take during the movie's first big fight) as well as making Rocky's role as a mentor a more fatherly one.

This time even the fights feel a little lacking, with the only compliment I can pay being that you truly feel the brutality of each punch when they're thrown.

Even Rocky's role is dialled down as he takes a step back for this movie, and it's a shame because he was so good in the first one (still think he should've won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).

And on the topic of the movie being formulaic, it basically just lacked a lot of fresh ideas. One part I found the draggiest was when there were scenes with family drama. I found those so incredibly predictable and any sense of suspense or nerves were lost simply because you know what's going to happen next.

On a more positive note, the performances were all top-notch. Surprisingly even from dear old Ivan Drago himself, Dolph Lundgren, who played a cardboard box and the most stereotypical fake-Russian-bad-guy so well in Rocky IV.

He actually brought a lot of depth to his character and gave him a lot of humanity, and you see his struggle through his living situation and daily life routine which is a result of having failed the Soviet Union when he lost to Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) in that fight.

Another thing I could appreciate was how Drago communicated to his son and to his countrymen in his native tongue of the Russian language. It's a small detail but it's something that I truly enjoy whenever directors take that extra step for authenticity.

It's very easy for actors to simply don an accent and communicate with their supposedly foreign countrymen in English [take Tom Cruise in Valkyrie (2008)], but when they learn their dialogue in their native tongues and actually sound legit in their delivery, it's brilliant to watch.

Kudos to the actors and director Steven Caple Jr. for taking the effort.

Tessa Thompson also did a good job as Adonis' love interest and singer, Bianca. Her character is fleshed out a lot more in this one and they share some really good chemistry too.

For the music, composer Ludwig Göransson returned to score the film and I thought he did a great job once again.

In the first one, he developed a new set of themes which didn't stray to far away from the iconic Rocky fanfare by the legendary Bill Conti, but was also very original in creating its own unique sound.

He builds on that with this one with less influence by the Rocky theme, and symbolically so as Rocky does take a step back in this one.

I also have to commend the training montage in the movie simply for it being so different from what we're used to (a gray tracksuited Rocky/Adonis sprinting, pumping his fists in the air, etc.). The training montage in the first Creed was honestly so cringey and easily the lowest point of an otherwise flawless movie.

For the movie's direction, Steven Caple Jr. stepped in to take over from the very talented Ryan Coogler, and he did a really good job in continuing the Creed saga as well as bringing some of his touches to the fore.

All in all, Creed II was a decent enough sequel that lacks the charm and freshness of the first movie and struggles to make up for it with slightly underwhelming fight sequences.

Performances all round are very solid, with perhaps the scene-stealer being Dolph Lundgren for me.

Should they make more Creed movies? Well, I'd imagine they'd go on to make a few more sequels before they start getting ridiculous. Should they, though? I'd say stop at number three. There's still a few more stories to tell about this character - just needs the right story and the right director.

7/10.