What did I like?
People will laugh and say the Rocky franchise is now a joke and that the Rocky Balboa characters should be brought out to the fields for retirement, but Sylvester Stallone will return one more time and breathe life into this character one last time. Those who hate sports movies, boxing movies, or Stallone movies need to take a moment and go watch Creed to appreciate the efforts that was put into this movie. In case anyone forgot or didn’t know, Rocky (1979) actually won an Oscar for Best Picture. A character brought to life by Stallone’s own mind turned into a legend and continues to be a legend today. He is the coach and mentor we all wished we had, just like Apollo Creed’s son, wants to be the king of the boxing world. Once he tracks down Rocky on the streets of Philadelphia, the pair will form an unlikely duo that overcome the odds one more time for one epic movie about having what it takes to win and never be a quitter.
What didn’t I like?
I hate to admit this but after watching Southpaw earlier this year, the only aspect of both of those films that really disappointed me is the boxing ring training sessions. The charm about Rocky in 1979 was the lack of advanced training tools that he used to become a lean mean fighting machine. Boxing is a totally different world then it was thirty years ago and I get that, but if you watched Southpaw and watched Jake Gyllenhaal duck under ropes and learn how to shadow box, it’s the same old routine here in Creed. Granted it’s tough to say training with Rocky Balboa is the worse part of the movie, but Rocky doesn’t really do much. He’s a quiet coach for most of the movie and then when the training actually happens he’s more of a bystander coach then an actual hands on kind of guy. I felt the writers wanted to give us training montages like the old Rocky movies, which they do a great job at with, but these sequences just didn’t sit well with me anymore.
Was Creed a good story?
I think I may have explained this one in a bunch of different areas of this review, but yes Creed is an amazing story. Not only is it a great boxing story, it is also a great story about two human beings, cut from the same cloth, who need each other to continue moving on in life.
Notable Performances?
This movie focuses in on the daily lives of two central characters, Creed and Rocky Balboa. One is an upcoming wrecking machine, filled with hatred, passion, and energy to take on the world. The other is our battle-scarred hero that is battling with life as an aging person. Neither of these two men have much in terms of family members so they must rely on each other to make it through the bad times. It was bittersweet how Sylvester Stallone handled his most famous character of all-time. Tears fell down my cheeks because Rocky is one of my childhood heroes, never in my wildest dreams would I ever think something bad would happen to him. Rocky is human and humans suffer through pain and agony, it’s what the human spirit is built upon.
The torch has been passed here to Michael B. Jordan, as the new face of Hollywood’s most famous boxing movies. I sense when he was cast he took this role more serious than any other in his young career. You can feel his sincere determination to be the best he can be in the ring and on camera. There isn’t a name off the top of my head that I could think would have been better suited for this role, and I’m thrilled he was able to recover from his sub par performance in Fantastic Four. Yes, I need to remind all of you that he was guy on fire in that horrible movie. Sad, but true. Thanks to the huge success of Creed, I look forward to him reprising his role, in Creed II.
Would I recommend it?
Creed is an amazing character in the epic Rocky franchise. My hope is the way this film ends that it allows for a sequel and a branching off of the original series that focused on one of the greatest boxers ever, fictional or realistic.
my star rating: 9 out 10
imdb: 8.6 out 10 / metascore: 82/100 / rottentomatoes: 93% out 100%
roger ebert: 4 out 4 / richard crouse: 3.5 out 5
Ten Stars or Less 
Great to read that you loved it too. I had absolutely no expectations for this yet I thought it was superb. Just barely missed my top 10 of 2015 list. Really strong movie.
I had such high expectations based on the fact that watching Rocky was a major part of my childhood. Like we both agree this movie was actually really good and I thought was a great continuation of a superb movie franchise.
So glad that this film is getting love. I went in with zero expectations and came out a full fan, desperate to rewatch the whole Rocky series again. I hope a decent series comes it of this film too, there is definitely potential there.