Creed
The best thing Sylvester Stallone could have done after 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” seemingly the iconic character’s swan song, is let go of the reins and let someone else find a way of continuing the franchise. That is exactly what he has done by letting Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler, who are following up their 2013 Sundance hit, “Fruitvale Station,” take center stage in telling what seems like one, final story with the Italian Stallion, and indeed, Stallone’s heartfelt work as Balboa here has him on the way to winning an Oscar almost 40 years after the 1976 film that started this franchise won the Best Picture Oscar, and launched Stallone’s career. The character has come a long way since that first film, and the franchise has gone through several incarnations, but both have always been best when Rocky felt less like a superhero (cough, “Rocky IV”), and more like an everyday fighter, where his story of struggles and finding the will to go on and fight with honor and purpose could be applicable to anyone, anywhere. That came back to the series in “Rocky Balboa,” and Coogler and co-writer Aaron Covington find the next, and final, logical step for Rocky in “Creed”- to pass on what he has learned, and who better to do that with than Adonis Creed, Jordan’s character, and the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky’s greatest rival, and one of his closest friends.
Let’s go back a bit, though, because when Apollo died in the ring in “Rocky IV” 30 years ago, his wife wasn’t pregnant. Well, I didn’t say he was Creed’s legitimate son. Adonis is the product of an affair Apollo had shortly before that fight with Ivan Drago, and after his mother died while he was young, Adonis found himself in the foster system, bouncing from home to home due to constant fighting. After one altercation, Creed’s widow Mary Ann (Phylicia Rashad, terrific in a brief role), finds him and tries to give him a good life living with her. The pull of boxing is too strong, though, and when we see him in his 20s, he is in a successful business job (he just received a promotion), but he also sneaks away to Mexico to box underground, where he is undefeated. One day, Adonis (who goes by his mother’s last name, Johnson, not wanting the weight of what the Creed name would mean) quits his job, and commits to boxing full-time. He needs someone to train him, though, and no one at Apollo’s old boxing gym in LA will do it. He tells Mary Ann that he’s going to Philadelphia, and it’s here where he hooks up with Rocky, still running his restaurant, Adrian’s, and not having been in the ring since the events of “Rocky Balboa.” He’s reluctant to help Adonis, but eventually, he agrees to, and all of the sudden, both of them are in the spotlight when the truth comes out about Adonis’s parentage, and the current heavyweight champ wants a match with him, but only if Adonis goes by Creed. He agrees, but he’s still not sure what that name means for him, and isn’t ready to own it. Legacy is a big part of “Creed,” and both Adonis and Rocky find themselves figuring out what there’s is in a trial by fire that puts the past in the spotlight.
So, did Coogler and Jordan sell out by following up their Sundance success, which justifiably put them on the radar, with a franchise film? Not at all, because this feels less like a continuation of a franchise than a film that stands on it’s own. Yes, it has ties to the “Rocky” franchise in characters and Stallone’s presence, but it’s a logical progression, not a money grab. This is a film about Adonis’s journey from a kid whose struggles early in life had a profound impact on him to a young man who learns to channel those struggles, and the circumstances of where he came from, into an identity and sense of purpose that isn’t beholden to any of those things. This is a very natural follow-up for Coogler (who shows off some fantastic technical skill in the fight scenes, especially the first, big one Adonis has after Rocky starts training him) and Jordan, who is every bit as good as his legendary co-star, who are finding a surprising way of building their own cinematic legacy with the help of an icon. They are very much in the same boat Adonis is in this film, and they succeed beautifully while giving a great fighter one, last shot at glory. “Creed” may be built on the shoulders of a legend, but Coogler and Jordan find their own path, and earn our respect.
