Movie Review: Creed

Pound for pound, Creed is the year’s best piece of pure cinematic entertainment.

Don’t call it a comeback; the Rocky movies have been here for years. Thirty-nine, to be precise. (That’s 39 years, not movies, though the franchise is working hard to match that number.)

Once upon a time, the prospect of Rocky VII might have incited eye-rolls. In the hands of Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler, it’s a respectable contender for 2015’s best film.

And why shouldn’t it be? The original Rocky and 2006's Rocky Balboa are legitimately moving underdog parables, while Rockys II, III and IV are undeniably fun boxing flicks/ workout montage fodder. (We don’t discuss Rocky V in this house.)

Creed – not strictly a sequel but a return to the Balboa-verse – is all those things and more; cinematically audacious, thanks to some single-take fight sequences, and a powerful showcase of its stars, including the surprisingly excellent Sylvester Stallone, back in Rocky’s porkpie hat and more soulful than ever.

Coogler’s Fruitvale Station lead Michael B. Jordan here plays the illegitimate son of Rocky’s late frenemy, legendary boxing champ Apollo Creed. Christened Adonis, he goes by Donnie Johnson (his mother’s maiden name) to distance himself from the father he never knew.

Yet, there’s something in him that draws him to the boxing ring, fighting in an underground Mexican league despite having grown up with means, and, more recently, promoted at the kind of job that requires a button-down shirt and tie. At home, he shadow-boxes in sync with his dad’s bouts on YouTube.

That’s what inspires the Los Angeles-bred upstart to leave his job and move to Philadelphia, seeking the tutelage of Rocky Balboa (Stallone). He asks for some basic training drills even though Rocky is keen to leave his past in the past. However, when Donnie starts calling the ex-Champ “unc” (as in ‘uncle’), Rocky melts. This might be the only film character more family-oriented than Dom Toretto.

If you’ve seen a Rocky instalment before, or have any fleeting familiarity with the popular narrative arcs of the last few centuries, little of what follows in Creed will come as a surprise; not Adonis’ romance with the Lisa Bonet-looking singer-songwriter Bianca (Tessa Thompson), not Rocky’s own battle with ailing health, and not Donnie’s unlikely matchup with world light heavyweight champion “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellow). Nonetheless, you’d have to be a total spoilsport not to be sucked in by Creed’s charm and rousing energy.

Cinematographer Maryse Alberti brings some of the grit she brought to The Wrestler, placing us directly in the ring as Donnie takes, and administers, brutal punch after punch. It's exhilarating.

Composer Ludwig Göransson flirts with Bill Conti’s iconic theme in his own take on the score, eventually opening the relief valve in the climax and finally letting us hear those horns. If your emotional response is similar to mine, you’ll need tissues and lots of them.

Writer-director Coogler, meanwhile, places his focus on the actors. Jordan was astounding as a good man with a fatally short fuse in the enraging, heartbreaking Fruitvale Station. He brings the same fire and fight to Creed. Stallone, on the other hand, hasn’t seemed this vulnerable and big-hearted since, well, that first Rocky. Even if the rest of the feature around him had disappointed, Creed would still be worth it, just to see a beloved screen character return for one more victory lap. Seven rounds later, Stallone’s Rocky is yet to wear out his welcome.

Rocky won Best Picture at the 1977 Academy Awards over excellent, “important” films like All The President’s Men, Network and Taxi Driver. Ever since, it’s been held up to a kind of scrutiny that hasn’t allowed it to earn the same glowing reputation held by those other also-rans. That doesn’t mean it’s not brilliant. It simply had more modest ambitions.

As Creed now approaches its own Oscar season (a disappointing one, at that), the question of why it “matters” will now doubt arise. “What’s it really about?” Well, it’s about the pressure of making a Rocky movie. After all, Donnie frequently points out that he wants to make it with his own name, because maybe people will discover his heritage and realise he doesn’t live up to that legacy. Boy, did Coogler, Jordan and Stallone not need to share in Donnie’s worry.

Creed is a deserving addition to what remains - weirdly and maybe antithetically - one of the most underrated franchises around. It’s poignant and inspiring and thrilling. I challenge whatever winds up winning Best Picture to match it.

4.5/5

Creed is now in cinemas.

Rated M for mature themes, violence and coarse language.