Creed II - Movie Review (No Spoilers)

See the source image

By Michael Momper

Some movie franchises are bound to chug along indefinitely, for better or worse. It certainly seems that the Rocky franchise is an example. Transformers, Jurassic World, Star Wars... with never-ending franchises like these, there are always stumbles along the way as the filmmakers often will coast on nostalgia and hearken back to what made the first movie famous, or will give in to other tired cliches just to cash in on the blockbuster mania. Occasionally there will come a new entry in the franchise with a fresh angle or spin, and I certainly felt the first Creed movie had this factor. A new perspective was given to the viewers, seeing a new up-and-comer through Rocky's aging eyes. I don't believe Creed II has the same must-see factor, however.

In terms of run time and pacing, this movie was pleasant enough I suppose. There was nothing that would make people leave the theater early or anything... enough fights and decent family melodrama to keep things on track. The directing, courtesy of Steven Caple Jr., was crisp and colorful enough to be very easy to look at, with a few cool landscape shots here and there.

In my review of this movie though, I couldn't get past the amount of hackneyed, cliched plot developments and totally unreasonable character motivations. The movie centers around a "sins of the father" sort of premise, where Adonnis Creed, the late Apollo's son, is challenged to fight Ivan Drago's son, Viktor, while Adonnis is the heavyweight world champ. He has everything to lose, and Rocky won't back him because he starts to feel that Apollo's infamous bout with Ivan isn't as irrelevant as Adonnis thinks it is. An interesting enough premise to me, as I really enjoyed the villain of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Viktor Drago, however, is fleshed out even less than Ivan. He is a completely one-dimensional, cardboard cutout villain, relegated to nothing but hateful stares and gritting teeth. The screenwriting and plot were absolutely packed with commonplace and formulaic development, so overused that I rolled my eyes and cringed at least five times. There was plenty of talking to gravestones, laughable moments of "get back up!" and "rise again!" and "never give up!" that actually had me cracking up in the theater. How many times do we have to see training montages set to some type of "hip" soundtrack? The character motivations, especially that of the lead character, were absolutely incoherent, not to mention unreasonable. There was occasional effective family melodrama, and after all, that is what the best boxing movies focus their characters around (Rocky, The Fighter, Raging Bull).

If you enjoy boxing movies or the Rocky franchise more than I do, this will be a perfectly decent time at the theater. The brisk pace kept the movie moving along enough that I wasn't constantly checking my phone or anything; however, I just couldn't get past the banalities in the plot to recommend this movie wholeheartedly. It's always good to see Rocky in a movie as he is a great character, and I think Adonnis was developed quite well in the first Creed movie. However, I just grow tired of the boxing movie tropes that were displayed in Creed II, and can't take much more of the "never say die" speeches or sweaty training montages.

Rating: 55/100

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Panther: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

Image
By Michael Momper Let me start by saying this: Black Panther does not need to be pandered. It does not need a patronizing pat on the back. It is, in my opinion, a very good movie- and that is all that matters in the world of art. Fresh off of his tremendous first two directorial features, Fruitvale Station and the immensely popular Rocky sequel Creed , director Ryan Coogler is back, but in a very different setting. Being that it is a Marvel movie, expectations are sky-high as always- but with those expectations comes the free reigns of a massive budget. This is a sizable challenge for a young director, who has to tell a completely new origin story, make us interested in the character, and rise to the demands of the typical Marvel fandom. As such, Coogler certainly delivered in spades. Black Panther features a different sort of protagonist, one who is decidedly more mild-tempered and noble than the likes of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, etc. For this reason, the human touch a...
Read more

Hit Man: Movie Review (Warning: Contains Spoilers)

Image
  By Michael Momper Can a movie be morally irresponsible? Where should we draw that line? I submit to you that it can, and I think you will agree. Consider two subjects: tone and content. When a movie's tone is problematic, even if the intentions are good, we might have a compromised piece of art. Consider a movie about a real serial killer that fumbles the tone so badly that you actually root for the killer, or find him charming and likeable. Rightfully, audiences call this out as irresponsible filmmaking- the killer had real victims, and likely living, still-grieving families, so whatever the intentions of the filmmakers it is still important to never let the film revel in the evil of its subject. Content is a slightly thornier subject. If you've read our blog, you know that Graham and I are no prudes. We aren't going to call out a film as "morally irresponsible" just for having some nudity and lots of swearing. However, a piece of art that glorifies evil is som...
Read more

Hostiles: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

Image
By Michael Momper The modern Western is oftentimes a movie packed with clichés and tired genre tropes, and most people can probably rattle them off even if they are not fans of the genre: long journeys on horseback or in covered wagons, revolvers being fired into the air, a cast of buff alpha males (luckily we have been spared from Westerns featuring scrawny beta males so far), and at least one damsel in distress. The newest well-reviewed Western to hit theaters, writer and director Scott Cooper’s Hostiles , actually contains every one of these hackneyed plot devices… and yet somehow manages to become one of the best films I have seen in this genre in a long time. Scott Cooper has consistently been able to nab some excellent actors for his projects, including Jeff Bridges, Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch. In Hostiles , Christian Bale returns for his second Cooper feature, alongside fellow talent in Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Ben Foster, and Ro...
Read more