Creed II
Can anyone who’s seen “Rocky III” recently remind me if Apollo Creed ever fought Clubber Lang? I’m just hedging the bets of whether “Creed III” will ever happen…
Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” is the best late-arriving sequel we didn’t realize we wanted for the “Rocky” franchise, and that comes from someone who really loves “Rocky Balboa.” If “Creed” didn’t have the connections to the franchise, and was just Michael B. Jordan playing a foster kid with a itch to box like the father he didn’t know he had, it’d still be a terrific film. But the way Coogler and Sylvester Stallone turned it into a great entry into what was, at one point, a very silly series was miraculous in how it added depth and purpose to continuing the story of Rocky Balboa through his mentoring of his beloved friend’s son, Adonis Creed.
I’m not going to lie, “Creed II” had me nervous for a lot of reasons, and not just because I thought the original put a bow on the franchise well. Yes, Coogler not directing (instead going to make “Black Panther”) was concerning, but he still had skin in the game with how Adonis’s story would continue as an executive producer. I actually missed the announcement of Stallone not directing the film, instead ceding the director’s chair to Steven Caple Jr. while still writing the script with Juel Taylor. Stallone’s fingerprints are all over this film, though, which naturally takes the shape of 1985’s “Rocky IV” (as well as “Rocky II,” though it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen that one) with the introduction of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the Russian boxer who killed Apollo in the ring, and whom Rocky beat afterwards in Russia, and his son, Viktor (Florian Munteanu), to the story. This is what gave me the most pause about the film, because it feels as though it’s a contrived sequel premise, the fight for revenge the main character didn’t see coming because he was shielded from his father’s life. But Adonis feels the pressure to take the fight based on the expectations of his newly-won Heavyweight crown, and of doing something his father didn’t against Drago- surviving. “Creed II” goes about its business quite well, though, and even if it lifts liberally from the structure of those earlier “Rocky” movies, Stallone and his collaborators have some well-considered themes at work here.
“Rocky IV” was a favorite of mine as a kid- I have always loved the underdog story, and Stallone’s 1985 film set it to a rock soundtrack that jacks me up whenever I hear it. Watching it now, though, one can’t help but see the weird convergence of Rocky’s arc with Cold War politics that makes it feel completely like the product of the Reagan era it was. “Creed II” is very much its cousin, in terms of structure, with Creed failing in the first fight, having to get himself right before the inevitable rematch, where he has to train in a way he never has before prior to facing a hostile crowd in Russia, because of course it has to be in Russia. One thing that worried me when the first trailer hit was that the filmmakers were using Drago as a superfluous connection point, without having much of an emotional reason for Adonis to take the fight beyond “your dad killed my dad.” I’m still not quite sure if Stallone and Taylor found a satisfactory reason for this film from Adonis’s point-of-view, although seeing him- as continually played by the great Jordan- taking steps towards a life together with Bianca, played again by the lovely Tessa Thompson, while still finding need for Rocky’s mentoring and friendship (and the scenes between Jordan and Stallone continue to bring out the best in both actors), justifies the continuance of his story alone. What I think the film does very well is develop Ivan Drago beyond the cartoon supervillain “Rocky IV” made him out to be, and Lundgren does well in reprising the role. The 30-plus years since he lost to Rocky have not been kind to Ivan, with his country and wife turning their backs on him. That sting, that pain, is what has driven Ivan and the way he has taught his son. They view Creed as a way to get respect from their countrymen again, and the way Ivan pushes his son makes you think he has poisoned his son with the same toxic need to accept winning over anything else he has lived with, but there are good moments along the way where that tough father sheen comes off, and Drago feels human. Those moments alone almost justify this film’s existence.
I very much feel like this should be the final word from the “Rocky”/”Creed” franchise. Rocky is finally at a place of peace with himself, and Adonis is living out of the shadow of his father. The film that brings them to this point isn’t great, but it is satisfying in the same way “Rocky Balboa” was at the end. Stallone has supposedly said that this is the last time he will play Rocky. I hope he sticks to that, and lets the series go out on a high note.
