Currently, the cinematic landscape is crowded with an abundance of reboots, remakes, and sequels. Many of those movies are projects no one ever really asked for in the first place. The first Creed was one of those. On top of that, rebooting a franchise that went down for the count a long time ago was a disaster waiting to happen. Fortunately, some good people got their hands and minds in on the project during its infancy and delivered a worthy successor to the title. The sequel had a lot to live up to and tackled the unique challenge of being a direct sequel to two films…two stories…30 years apart. For what it’s worth, Creed II boldly attempted to cover a lot of ground and still be pretty entertaining in the process.
While this was a good sequel, it was easy to see that Ryan Coogler left for greener pastures. The departure of a director such as himself had a noticeable impact on the film. That’s not to say Steven Caple Jr. botched the job in the director’s chair but there was an incredible amount of backstory and the movie wears a bit thin trying to cover it all. There was a sort of handcuffing that happened here, needing to tell both Creed’s story and Rocky’s as both parallel and intersecting arcs. Unfortunately, there’s a massive lack of character development from the titular character three years down the line. He’s still just as immature and hot-headed as when we first were introduced to him. Refusing to take responsibility for his actions, the audience has to go on that learning curve with him again. For a film that’s over two hours long, far too much of that was spent retracing developmental steps. Caple Jr. also focused much more on the technical aspects of boxing and that paid off with some of the best in-ring sequences in any of the Rocky films. Kramer Morgenthau’s cinematography utilized a lot of POV camera that catapulted the audience into the ring and created a different kind of interactive audience experience. It was a very cool way to put the audience in Adonis’s shoes. Unfortunately, that decision took time away from the characters and their stories which actually made the first film as rewarding and surprising as it was.
There is such a thing as “too many cooks in the kitchen”. A bunch of people received writing credits here but there was significant turnover as well. Coogler had his hands on the screenplay for the first but took executive producer credits this time, leaving Sylvester Stallone and Juel Taylor to pen the screenplay this time around. While the characters were interesting, heartful, and well written, that doesn’t necessarily mean the screenplay was strong.
The primary cast of Michel B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and Stallone all have very good chemistry with one another and that carried the majority of the workload…the first movie showcased that well. Unfortunately, a lot of the would-be meaningful moments between Donnie and Rocky are lost due to redundant dialogue and back-tracking. The relationship, the chemistry, they had from the first film just wasn’t quite the same. As a trainer and a family member, it’s Balboa’s duty, to be honest with Adonis about his expectations and he was right to caution him against being baited into a fight he’s unprepared for (Sly wrote that well for himself). Donnie reacts with brash immaturity he should be passed and the conversation just kind of ends without them really talking about it. Of all the moments to have some extra time, that conversation, about why to take the fight or why not to, should have been one of the pivotal moments in the film. Instead, it served as more of a throwaway moment to get to the inevitable. Catching lightning in a bottle is difficult to do once, let alone twice, but a lot of the little story elements were missed the second time despite having some interesting stories to tell.
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One of those well-written characters was the new Drago. He was a much more interesting heel than his father was (a mostly cartoonish evil Russian back in 1985) and he may even be a hero in this context rather than the villain. Viktor is the product of his father’s failures, not just as a fighter but as a man and as a father. He is a violent and complicated man because of it and Florian Munteanu grabbed the bull by the horns. Representing the Drago name was just as important to this film as repping the Creed name, and he did a very good job being larger than life. Dolph Lundgren came back to play the elder Drago, which was nice to see for the longtime fans of the franchise, but the moments between him and Rocky should have been more impactful and more emotional. They have one real interaction and again it’s Rocky getting lectured by a short-sighted individual who’s ducking personal responsibility. It was just another one of the aforementioned missed opportunities.
It’s tough to describe but there was kind of a music video feel to the whole thing. The soundtrack by Mike WiLL Made-It features collaborations from some of the hip-hop industry’s biggest names such as Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, Jay Cole, and Nas. Due to the cultural relevance of the first film, it’s no big surprise to see a lot of these guys jump at the chance to be a part of the follow-up. However, going this road is a marked difference from selecting classic hip-hop tracks that share some of that cultural relevance. While the album is loaded with heavy-hitters and tracks that absolutely bump, that’s solely where the focus is. This wouldn’t be a Rocky movie without a training montage and the music comes in handy for those all too familiar moments.
Creed II is a good sequel and carved out a new trajectory as a franchise that is more self-aware despite the lack of creativity and originality. This movie is incredibly predictable in moments but the formula has worked well for all this time and that doesn’t really change. Expect to see more of these as long as Jordan wants to stay attached. Hopefully, the writers can go a new direction.
Recommendation: For people like me, who grew up with the Rocky franchise, you have to see this. It perfectly palatable for a new generation that’s just getting introduced to some of this stuff but the nostalgia factor certainly adds an extra little push. The box office success is a reflection of the broader appeal and PG-13 storytelling that’s on display but there’s a heart there.