Review: Creed - Upholding the Rocky Legacy

Those shaking their heads at yet another Rocky film should not the title and therefore focus of this film is not the aged (and looking particularly so in this – too much Warburtons bread methinks) Rocky balboa, more so Adonis (Michael B Jordan) the illegitimate offspring of Apollo Creed.

Freed from youth prison by Creeds wife, who takes him in and brings him up. Flash forward seventeen years and Adonis quits his job to emulate his father and become a boxer. So the tale of Rocky tutoring and training him as a light heavyweight whilst keeping the fact of Adonis’s father a secret…

There are similarities with the very first film in the Rocky Series. The rags to riches, fighting the good fight message. Of course it’s a boxing film, you wouldn’t be here reading this if you didn’t like that..but  its also about what you are fighting for. This message is delivered right from the off as we find Adonis in juvenile detention heading for a life on the crime ridden streets, dropping in and out of prison.

Both Jordan and Stallone deliver impressive performances and if this is the last film in the franchise, as the storyline suggests then Creed may just resurrect its own legacy, such is the engaging performance of Jordan. His love interest in the film gives direction and shows that the franchise is safe and at home in Rockys home town of Philadelphia. 

One criticism may be the opponent that Creed fights, real life boxer Tony Bellew who just isn’t as antagonistic and evil as Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago, it possibly makes the whole thing a little less comic book so it’s a minor criticism. The fight scenes shot in Liverpool appear highly realistic, having been ringside for a couple of title fights myself recently, you can almost smell the sweat and blood due to some outstanding cinematography. Some of the best cinematic boxing scenes are here in Creed.

This is an excellent boxing movie in its own right, fans of the Rocky series will love this for its callbacks, in personnel, locations and overall feel. Its undoubtedly a passing of the baton and just as we tracked Balboas journey through several memorable films so I feel we will with Adonis Creed