Creed – Film Review

Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his famous father, boxing champion Apollo Creed, who died before Adonis was born. However, boxing is in his blood, so he seeks out Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and asks the retired champ to be his trainer. Rocky sees much of Apollo in Adonis, and agrees to mentor him, even as he battles an opponent deadlier than any in the ring. With Rocky’s help, Adonis soon gets a title shot, but whether he has the true heart of a fighter remains to be seen.

We are all aware that the first Rocky is the undisputed king of boxing films, but Ryan Coogler‘s Creed is a truly outstanding boxing drama that tells the incredibly captivating tale of a man who merely wants to be a great boxer but has no idea how to achieve that goal.

At this point, Rocky Balboa, who now owns a modest restaurant, is asked to assist him. Balboa hasn’t given boxing any attention in a while, but when young Adonis Creed approaches him and requests some training advice, he enters the ring once more to impart all of his knowledge.

Despite the fact that Balboa appears in this movie extensively, Creed‘s story dominates for the most part. It’s similar to the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies in that he plays the lead role and most of the story revolves around him, but he also receives mentoring from the legendary Tony Stark / Iron Man.

And when it comes to uplifting sports movies, Creed is by far one of the most amazing and inspiring. It demonstrates how an individual with a bad past and the perception that he must perpetually exist in his father’s shadow can still achieve success on his own. A lot of important ideas are beautifully explored in this story. The exceptional direction was provided by Ryan Coogler.

A magnificent one-take fight scene in the second act by Maryse Alberti is among the film’s other standout features, leaving you to legitimately wonder how it was captured on camera. It must be said that this fight has the best visuals in the entire series.

And it would be wrong to ignore Michael B. Jordan’s stunning performance as the film’s titular Adonis Creed. Is it his best performance, in my opinion? No. That would have to be his performance in Black Panther as Erik Killmonger. Yet even so, it’s amazing how intense and vicious he is in Creed compared to other times we’ve seen him.

Surprisingly, Sylvester Stallone has a lot to do in this movie as well. The writers even throw us a major surprise with his character later on, turning the movie into something far more emotional than we could have ever imagined. It could be his most nuanced portrayal as Balboa.

Few films, when it comes to sports movies, thrill me as much as Creed by Ryan Coogler does. Even while it might not be the franchise’s greatest triumph, Creed is undoubtedly a film that appreciates the franchise’s history and knows how to forge an exhilarating future.

Michael B. Jordan gives a standout performance as the lead in Ryan Coogler’s thrilling, adrenaline-fueled sports drama Creed.