Creed

The Rocky franchise’s latest segment Creed in a way is a riveting revamp of the franchise when you look at the whole structure of the script. Rocky films always had that intellectual, philosophical shade of life along with the brutal fights inside the ring; this time even after Stallone not doing any writing for the film, Creed has that pumping energy in abundance to keep you occupied for its entire runtime.

Apollo Creed’s son Adonis “Donnie” Johnson is the main protagonist of the movie. Having known the fact that his father was the world heavyweight champion, the passion of the boy always remained on fighting inside the ring and whatever he learned about fighting was self taught. The film mainly depicts that episode of Donnie’s life where he decides to quit his well paid job to pursue his passion for the fist fight. And for the training part, he chooses the best he could get; Rocky. How they both prepare for the fight and the parallel fight both had inside their minds is what Creed talking about.

Franchise is Rocky and we do know that it’s about fighting at the end of the day. But much like most of the films in the series, there is this intriguing way of storytelling that clearly shows us the struggle both Donnie and Rocky are undergoing at that phase of life. Donnie is desperate to show the world that he is not a fluke who just reached the big arena simply because of the surname he never wanted to have. The screenplay smartly puts the basically hopeless Rocky who feels and talks as if no one is left here for him, in a place where he will have to show his prodigy about having a fighting mentality in life. What really blew me was the way they visualized the fights. The long and uncut fight sequences have done the trick as the audience will make all those crowd reactions while watching the movie. The last fight where Donnie shows his metal is damn brutal and simply superb.

On screen Michel Jordan fits perfectly in to the role of that disturbed fighter who wants to prove a point. The dude has really worked in all departments to make the character look solid on screen. Sylvester Stallone elegantly underplays the aged Rocky and it was good to see him as Rocky after all those commercial potboilers. Tessa Thomson was fine as the leading lady who looks like Donnie’s Adrian.

Ryan Coogler along with Aaron Covington has written a script that has all the typical Rocky elements we are used to. It is ultimately the journey to the ring with the support of a good trainer. But the script adds more layers of attachments which makes the decision of the characters legitimate. There is an element of fight in the lives of Donnie, Rocky and Bianca. Coogler conceives the idea in a very energetic manner. As I already said, the uncut style of long sequences increases the impact of the film. The impressive background scores that come at the right time sounded terrific. Cinematography and cuts showed real quality.

On the whole Creed has furious fights, emotional minds and the fire to influence you with its characters who are fighters in many ways. Creed has done full justice to the brand Stallone created over the years and it will be interesting to see how the new franchise will go.