Creed is a sports drama directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Sylvester Stallone, Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew, and Graham McTavish.
Donnie Johnson (Jordan) is the son of famed boxer Apollo Creed (basically this universe's Muhammad Ali) via an extramarital affair, but Creed died before Donnie was born and he spends his young years in the foster system before Creed's wife, Mary Anne (Rashad) adopts him. He grows up in luxury (Creed left his wife loaded, of course), but he also grows up wanting to fight.
And then as an adult, he quits a good job, moves to Philly, and hunts down Rocky Balboa (Stallone) to be his trainer. Rocky, running a restaurant and waiting around to die (he did not end up loaded, due to events that I believe are covered in later Rocky movies), initially has no time for this nonsense, but pretty quickly warms up to the kid and agrees to help out. Meanwhile, Donnie gets involved with Bianca (Thompson), a musician living downstairs from him.
Donnie's fight career picks up, he wins an early fight easily, and then he gets an offer from the staff of Pretty Ricky Conlan (Bellew). Conlan is going to prison, which is probably going to end his boxing career, and they want a big fight to send him off. Conlan loses his temper and breaks the jaw of the dude he was supposed to fight (Andre Ward), and his manager Tommy (McTavish) finds out that "Donnie Johnson" is really Apollo Creed's son. Figuring that's got the necessary drama to send Conlan out on a high note, he offers the fight...if Donnie will change his name to Creed. Meanwhile, Rocky is diagnosed with cancer, and is initially resolved to just let the chips falls as they may, but agrees to chemo when Donnie frames it as a fight.
So then training montage, and eventually the fight, and it shakes out very much like Rocky's first fight against Creed - Creed goes 15 rounds with Conlan and nearly knocks him out, but Conlan wins by split decision. Conlan goes to prison, Creeds goes on to two more movies (so far).
So, I saw Rocky IV long before I saw Rocky, and thus I was not initially aware that the series didn't start out as hyperaggressive America-boner propaganda but as a thoughtful character piece that used boxing as a framing device for the protagonist's struggles and journey. I only mention that because Creed does basically the same thing, but the central conflict is Donnie struggling with being a Creed and whether that means he needs anything from his father's legacy, and by extension from anyone else. It's interesting because he's willing to work hard to be a fighter and to take whatever wisdom Rocky will give him, but he is 100% in control of that relationship because he knows he can walk out and fall back on the money and resources he has at his disposal (yes, Mary Anne cuts him off when he goes off to be a boxer, but he's a smart kid, you can't tell me he doesn't have some money saved up). But that all assumes that this kind of control is where the conflict of the character lies, and it's not. It's about his own abandonment issues, the fact that he had a rough childhood but then was brought into money and privilege so other folks don't see him as having any street cred or struggle in his life, and, one assumes, the lingering knowledge that while he might be a talented fighter, his father fucking died doing this.
It's a good script, and I think the Rocky mythos benefit from some change in perspective because Rocky's story is basically done. Michael B. Jordan is a great actor, Stallone slips effortlessly into Rocky mode (and got an Oscar nom for his trouble), and the supporting cast is likewise solid. This kind of movie requires that the sports scenes are tense and exciting, though, and Jordan does an impressive job in the fights (that shot in the fight with Conlan encompassing the first two rounds was, in fact, one continuous shot, which, like, holy shit).
I'm interested to see the next one, at least, because I know it puts Creed against Ivan Drago's son, and I think there's some interesting dramatic potential there.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Deadpool & Wolverine
No comments:
Post a Comment