Creed (Ryan Coogler)

[Watashi]

[Watashi]

So good.

[number8]

This is incredible. Easily the best Rocky movie since the original. I think it's also the only one besides it that's a great boxing movie. I'm a fan of Rocky Balboa but the fights in that were completely superfluous. This movie actually has really exciting fights.

Both Jordan and Stallone give wonderful performances, and their chemistry is actually really good.

[Scar]

I think I need to see this. I have a special place for Rocky Balboa. The other sequels were entertaining in my youth, but are far lesser movies

[TGM]

Seriously, with both Maggie and now this, who woulda ever thought that we'd be getting genuinely great acting performances from both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in 2015? And I can honestly see Stallone getting an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor this time around, too. Michael B. Jordan is also possible for awards recognition, though his category is pretty heavily stacked in comparison, but a damn fine outing from him here as well.

But this was just an all around tremendously well made movie. The story is very moving, and the two leads just have such awesome chemistry that really make both of their struggles all the more empowering to see them fight through. The fight cinematography is fucking phenomenal, some of the best filmed boxing sequences I've ever seen in a movie, and the musical ques give it that classic Rocky touch that'll give you chills, with enough of a twist here to give it a feel unique to this movie. This movie was getting pretty well received critically, and deservedly so. I wouldn't be surprised to see this be quite a contender come awards season, and it's already broken into my own Top 10 so far as well. Just a phenomenal outing, definitely worth checking out.

[Mal]

The essence of the story is so hollywood but it never feels hollywood. Great filmmaking all around and its nice to see someone like Stallone in a role that doesn't feel like he phoned it in at all (compared to Grudge Match, barf).

[Watashi]

It's crazy the legacy of Rocky that Stallone has created throughout the decades. I mean, this movie makes you believe that Rocky was a real person and that you could stroll to Adrian's bar after the show and say hi to him. Fucking incredible this movie is.

[Pop Trash]

One thing that I don't see mentioned enough here or in other reviews is how good this weaves the socio-political issues of African American absentee fatherhood into a rousing boxing movie.

[number8]

I think that may just be of demographic of established film critics, but lots of a lot of the black writers and comedians I follow on Twitter have been raving about how black the film is. Someone said a bunch of black of women at her showing burst into applause when they showed Adonis untangling Bianca's braids.

One can probably have an interesting discussion about how the film equates the underdog status of a white working-class hero to a black white-collar one.

[Pop Trash]

Someone said a bunch of black of women at her showing burst into applause when they showed Adonis untangling Bianca's braids.

ha...yeah a white director would never have that attention to (black) detail.

I have issues with Fruitvale Station, but Coogler really [OBLIGATORY BOXING PHRASE] knocked this one out.

[Dukefrukem]

Director of this movie will most likely being directing Black Panther

[Irish]

I liked this and I didn't.

The movie is at its best when it pushes in on the characters and focuses on them. Outside of that, it's lashed so firmly to a typical three act structure, and the beats of the first film, that it barely has room to breathe.

The first fight was inventive and visually interesting. The second was terrible; it has no rhythm whatsoever. The ending tries too hard to land specific emotional beats and resorts to doing it in dialogue (which is a shame). I get what they were going for and I liked some of what they did. I just wish they had done more of it.

[dreamdead]

This was solid in that all the characters were so sincere and kind and forgiving. Tessa Thompson remains an invigorating actress after her star work in Dear White People, but her trip out to England was the sort of decision that needed lingered over and dwelled upon, not simply taken as the given that the film makes it out to be.

Agree with the many noting the quality of that first fight. I wish the final fight had something of that weight, even if it wasn't done as a single-take. The end of the film just doesn't live up to the strong first two acts.

[amberlita]

Was I the only one laughing hysterically at the bizarre motorbike/Creed race thru the streets of Philly to Rocky's window? I mean...that was damn near parody.

Also, I loathe when smart women are given a good reason to dump a damaged guy but don't because hey we like our hero and if she for real dumped him she'd look like a bitch. Creed beat up the headliner at her debut concert over basically nothing and then had to get put into a separate jail cell cause he still couldn't stop fighting with the dudes in the other cell. He "fights all the time". That ain't going away. That's a Problem. But there she is at the end to support him because Hollywood's definition of a strong woman is the kind that stands her ground for 10 minutes of screen time but is sure to come back and support her man in the end. I give her a pass because it's Anthony B Jordan and I can't totally blame her for wanting to keep hitting that.

[number8]

Was I the only one laughing hysterically at the bizarre motorbike/Creed race thru the streets of Philly to Rocky's window? I mean...that was damn near parody.

That's probably my favorite scene. I got very emotional watching that and I wasn't sure why. I'm still not sure why it was cathartic for me personally, but I love hearing/reading Gene Demby's reasoning: https://storify.com/jhughley/getting-started

[amberlita]

That's probably my favorite scene. I got very emotional watching that and I wasn't sure why. I'm still not sure why it was cathartic for me personally, but I love hearing/reading Gene Demby's reasoning: https://storify.com/jhughley/getting-started

That's a great rationale for why that scene would be powerful if it didn't exist in another iteration in Rocky 2. The callback becomes greater than the emotional weight of the scene for the character in this film. It's the same thing that handicaps TFA.

[Henry Gale]

Dammit, I swear everything I'm watching is making super misty eyed this last week.

It's a very interesting thing, between this and Force Awakens, how certain modern filmmaking is now at a point where certain stories and modern legends of fiction have been around so long that they've seeped into a consciousness and ideal larger than just the movies they exist during, creating universes and emotions beyond what makes any real sense on paper, and now we have new, revitalized extensions of them that not only tap into the obvious nostalgia of them, but provide such a continued sense of hope through generational storytelling.

I've held Han & Luke and Rocky dearly for a majority of my life now, but seeing the proverbial torch (or sabers and gloves) passed onto Rey & Finn and Adonis is something I never expected to revitalize my love for the worlds they occupy in the ways they have. (Of course these are also the most recent and best examples I can think of, as we've seen just as many - if not more - properties do this really clumsily.)

That's probably my favorite scene. I got very emotional watching that and I wasn't sure why. I'm still not sure why it was cathartic for me personally, but I love hearing/reading Gene Demby's reasoning: https://storify.com/jhughley/getting-started

This. (And even as a white Canadian dude who grew up in suburbia, pretty much for the reasons touched on there.) Plus any time in the middle Rocky talks about the final chapter his time with Adrian. :'(

That's a great rationale for why that scene would be powerful if it didn't exist in another iteration in Rocky 2. The callback becomes greater than the emotional weight of the scene for the character in this film. It's the same thing that handicaps TFA.

I read this before I thought and wrote what I did above, but I'd say it's not unearned. It feels like such a natural extension of similar elements and the natural, recurring spirits of the characters involved, that for every millisecond I might feel cynical about it being retread, my genuine emotional, even physical reaction can't deny that it moves me.

Also, I loathe when smart women are given a good reason to dump a damaged guy but don't because hey we like our hero and if she for real dumped him she'd look like a bitch. Creed beat up the headliner at her debut concert over basically nothing and then had to get put into a separate jail cell cause he still couldn't stop fighting with the dudes in the other cell. He "fights all the time". That ain't going away. That's a Problem. But there she is at the end to support him because Hollywood's definition of a strong woman is the kind that stands her ground for 10 minutes of screen time but is sure to come back and support her man in the end. I give her a pass because it's Anthony B Jordan and I can't totally blame her for wanting to keep hitting that.

This was solid in that all the characters were so sincere and kind and forgiving. Tessa Thompson remains an invigorating actress after her star work in Dear White People, but her trip out to England was the sort of decision that needed lingered over and dwelled upon, not simply taken as the given that the film makes it out to be.

The end of the film just doesn't live up to the strong first two acts.

My biggest issues really. Bianca is a pretty perfectly, vibrantly realized and acted character, but when it comes to where she reconnects with Donnie, it doesn't feel as earned as it should. I'd even argue a simple device of her discovering something back at home before the fight that he might've done to right things would've worked even superficial wonders.

I feel like the story took the film to the right places, but the filmmaking in the last handful of minutes just seemed be a little more empty-calorie in its thrust and passion than what came before. I'm not sure the sudden "It's all good, mate. This was for show. Yor a good kid, eh." from Pretty Ricky worked for me either.

But other than that, this is such an unexpectedly vital movie to have, particularly coming from a a universe that ended things so perfectly with 2005's Balboa.

[Dead & Messed Up]

This movie is borderline immaculate. It is so good. When that score kicked in at the 12th, I laughed because "of course," but the flick totally earns it. What a rousing movie. Wow. Wow.

[Philip J. Fry]

Bravo.

[Morris Schæffer]

This movie is borderline immaculate. It is so good. When that score kicked in at the 12th, I laughed because "of course," but the flick totally earns it. What a rousing movie. Wow. Wow.

I'm very positive on this movie, but the final fight gave off somewhat of a vile stench. Two things I would have preferred to have seen handled differently.

[

Show Spoiler

When he jolted back to an upright position in one swift spasm after being knocked down because of a moving image of his father flashing before his eyes, a man he has never met, let alone seen fighting in the ring, I cringed. I cringed because I felt this was not that kind of a movie where such things can magically occur. It's ok if his father ultimately gets him to get up, but that should be conveyed through the screenplay, and the funny thing is that it actually did that because he decided to fight under the Creed name, thus negating the need for such an incredibly cheesy insert and ensuing rebirth.

]

Secondly, I understand that they couldn't show the entire duration of a boxing match, but in terms of pace and build-up, it literally felt like every punch connected. And that's because it probably did. Yes, the impact was often brutal, but there was precious little build-up and attempt made to simulate a real boxing match. From what I recall of the previous movies, even they weren't that hell bent on seeing the pugilists beating the living snot out of each other. Honestly, if Michael Schiffer had provided commentary along the lines of "C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!" and "MONSTER COMBO!!!!!" it would have been almost appropriate.

That said, mad props for keeping Rocky's [

Show Spoiler

disease sort of sidelined, not letting it overwhelm things but handled with dignity. Even more respect that the movie doesn't truly provide closure in this regard, but communicates his (temporarily?) decreased strength through the final images, that moving and laborious walk up those legendary steps.

]

[Scar]

What could have been a 'cheesy as fuck' use of the Rocky music worked so well it made this old son of a bastard tear up.

Wonderful movie. So very wonderful.

[slqrick]

This movie was fantastic. A god damn shame Coogler and Jordan didn't get more praise for their work. Loved how it focused on the black youth experience just as much as the boxing stuff. The first training montage set to Nas was seriously one of the most fist pumping moments I've had recently. I have the same issue with Tessa Thompson's character ultimately being "the girlfriend" but she does give a really nuanced performance during her scenes. Coogler is a force.

[DavidSeven]

You know, I thought the boxing scenes did leave something to be desired. A lot of styles on display, but not sure any of them really told a compelling story within the fight.

Could've used a defter touch with the love interest and wish it wasn't so slavish to the big Hollywood structure.

All-in-all, it's good work though. Well-paced and well-realized. Coogler and Jordan give this re-telling of Rocky for the urban youth a lot of credibility and you sense that in the choices. Yet, the film feels universal, broadly-appealing. It takes skill to play to all audiences while remaining true to your base, and Coogler nails that here.

[Grouchy]

Yeah, this is a solid Rocky film. Made me want to re-watch all the others for a second there, until I remembered they are not really that good. Agreed with two things you guys are saying - the bike scene was unexpectedly great and emotional and the first fight's filmmaking makes it better than the epic final one.

One thing I didn't like - I'm really not a fan of rap music so those moments lost a lot of strenght for me, specially since the rest of the soundtrack is good.