Film review: ‘Creed’

Sylvester Stallone is back, writing, directing and starring in ‘Creed.’|

Because “Creed” hewed to the formula of the original “Rocky” film, its follow-up is likewise a rehash of a “Rocky” sequel. Happily, MGM decided to ignore “Rockies” II and III and skip ahead to the only one you remembered besides the original: “Rocky IV,” in which Balboa had to take on the big bad communists all by himself.

“Creed II” begins with a fun reversal, as Rocky’s gritty Philadelphia streets are traded for the industrial wasteland of Ukraine, where Balboa’s old adversary Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) trains his extra-large adult son, Viktor (Florian Munteanu). Viktor’s story now is a lot like Rocky’s then. He wears the grey sweats and works a palooka day job - stacking pallets and shouldering concrete - only to spend his nights smacking heavy bags in a cement-dusted gymnasium. (This film will not be used by the Ukrainian government to lure tourists to the banks of the Dnieper River.)

As history buffs of fictionalized boxing know, before being defeated by Rocky, Drago père killed Apollo Creed in the ring. This is of considerable interest to our protagonist, the new heavyweight champion, and son of Apollo, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan, who has been going to the gym).

His manager/mentor Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, who co-wrote the picture) continues to dispense marble-mouthed bon mots. He describes himself with accuracy as a “chunk of yesterday trying to be today.” Because he remembers the past vividly, he tells Adonis not to fight Viktor, who is as jacked and monosyllabic and has the same cartoon villainess as his dad.

The film strains to bring relevance to Adonis’s aspiring musician partner Bianca (Tessa Thompson) – in the course of the film she garners a record deal, a baby, and a wide variety of hair braids.

To facilitate their careers, Adonis and Bianca have to move from Philly to Los Angeles and, as everyone knows, the farther you are from your favorite cheesesteak, the more things go wrong.

Drago continues to crush all challengers and trash talk Creed about being scared to face him. Even with the belt around his waist, Adonis says he can’t feel like a champion until he faces his single-minded foe. He feels even less like a champion after he steps in the ring with Drago because his ribs get crushed and his kidney rearranged by some body blows. His only stroke of luck is that Drago’s knockout punch is illegal so he’s disqualified (and demands a rematch).

We ask ourselves, why didn’t Adonis win? As he goes through some dull physical therapy sessions we realize we already know the answer - he had not yet been filmed doing a sufficiently punishing training montage! With Rocky, he rectifies his sweat equity deficit in the Southern California desert. When he arrives for the climactic rematch in Moscow, it’s an event so important that even Brigitte Nielsen (Ivan Drago’s ex-wife) emerges from deep freeze to put in an appearance.

The pre-match weigh-in gives us the opportunity to peep not just the youngsters but also Stallone and Lundgren going toe-to-toe 30 years down the road from “Rocky IV.” After much jutting of chins, Rocky gets the last word: “Around here we put strays away.”

A few juicy bits notwithstanding, young director Steven Caple Jr. does not have the verve of “Creed” helmer Ryan Coogler, who brought the bravura savor of Philly to the screen and inventive camerawork into the ring.

Still, Caple Jr.’s film moves pleasantly to its inevitable, uplifting end. The good news for him is that there are many worse activities in the world than watching a shirtless Michael B. Jordan exercise for a couple of hours.

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