Creed II (Review)
Creed II Returns to Tell Another Story About the Sins of Our Fathers.
I wasn’t entirely sold on the first Creed movie, but luckily Creed II managed to fix most of the issues I had with the first one. While the fights not have been quite as impressive this time around, the story and the characters have come a long way since their debut. I certainly enjoyed the sequel more than the first Creed film, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Creed II is a better movie overall.
Michael B. Jordan was already having a pretty good year since he knocked it out of the park as one of the best villains of the MCU in Black Panther. This time he’s back as the hero though as he reprises his role as Adonis Creed, the son of the ill-fated boxer who perished at the hands of Hollywood’s Cold War obsession in the 1980’s. While the first film was about him trying to live up to his father’s legacy, this time around he’s trying to pave his own path. Jordan embraces his character’s struggle bringing an emotional performance to the screen as he struggles to determine who he is as a fighter. Luckily, he’s got a new challenger to help him “find himself.”
While Jordan might be pretty jacked for his role as Creed, Florian Munteanu is an absolute monster as the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed his father in the ring. He towers over Jordan and looks as though he could literally “break him.” In typical cliched Russian fashion, young Viktor is not a man of many words, but that’s probably not a bad thing considering this is a boxing movie. Instead, he lets his fists do the talking for him as he brutalizes Jordan in the ring. While Munteanu might let his fist do the talking for him, Dolph Lundgren turns in a remarkable physical performance as well. This time around he is a broken man haunted by the past after his defeat at the hands of Rocky. While he might have been quite the beast last time we saw him, this time he is a beaten old man doing his best to get back all the things he lost to boxing.
While I certainly liked Creed II a lot more than the first one, it only proved just how much the character needed to grow up. This time around he starts the film as a weepy-eyed crybaby who can’t stand not getting his way but soon learns humility at the hands of Viktor. In a lot of ways, Adonis starts the film as a spoiled brat at the top of the world. A man that his actual father would probably have been ashamed of. Luckily, director Steven Caple Jr. manages to help Creed grow up with a few intense training montages (it wouldn’t be a boxing movie without them). Best of all though Caple manages to create some memorable moments in these montages that make them fairly memorable, not an easy feat considering just how many of these scenes are a part of the genre. Creed II certainly puts Jordan through his paces on film, and he does an incredible job playing a convincing boxer.
Creed II is a film that plays to its strengths and embraces the long history that comes before it. Of course, there’s the return of the Dragos, but Caple pays homage in a number of other ways as well. Tessa Thompson actually wars a few outfits that are reminiscent of Talia Shire from the first Rocky film, which only manages to solidify the strengthening bond between the two of them that’s at the center of Jordan’s personal journey. After all, the two are having a baby together and this time around the film doesn’t want audiences to forget that Thompson is a hearing-impaired individual, but one that is hardly handicapped. However, I think it’s Sylvester Stallone and Lundgren that remind us that they were the originals when it came to this boxing franchise. Jordan might be spectacular as the new hero of this universe, but he’s never going to have a tale as epic or humbling as the original Rocky when he took on Drago. That being said, Creed II is a noble attempt at living up to that classic.
What works the best in Creed II is the fact that he finally had a villain worthy of him. I can’t even tell you the name of the first bad guy in Creed, but I won’t soon forget the absolute monster that is Viktor Drago. Caple manages to handle the character perfectly as well. There might be a few faults with Creed II but the tale of the hero overcoming an unstoppable villain is far from a let down this time around. The boxing matches might not be quite as good as in the first one, but with higher stakes, it’s hard to look away even as things get rough for our hero. Creed II might not be a knockout hit, but I’m willing to give a TKO ruling.
