Is 'Creed II' A Worthy Sequel? Here's What The Reviews Say
Ryan Coogler's 2015 continuation of the "Rocky" series was so good it helped give us "Black Panther." Can director Steven Caple Jr. do more with "Creed II" than remind us of "Creed" and "Rocky" movies past? Can the tender chemistry of Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson carry this brutal film, or will dropping Ivan Drago back in the picture pummel the spinoff's entire premise? Here's what the reviews say:
Right As Adonis Reaches The Height Of His Career, Here Come Ivan Drago And His Son
This time around, Jordan's Adonis Johnson — who, as you'll likely remember, is the illegitimate son of Rocky Balboa's late foe-turned-friend Adonis Creed — is riding high as the heavyweight champ, and he decides to ask Tessa Thompson's Bianca to become his wife. (She says yes.) Then he accepts the challenge of a new, formidable foe, Viktor Drago (played by heavyweight boxer Florian "Big Nasty" Munteanu), son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). The elder Drago killed Adonis' father in the ring (as seen in the 1985 Rocky IV). Now, he's pushing his sullen, beefy kid to follow in his thuggish footsteps.
[TIME]
A cozy family life beckons, and while Bianca's singing career has taken off, the disease that cripples her hearing has only grown worse. A few too many new developments arrive right on schedule, but Caple frames the conversations between this believable couple with closeup intimacy that makes their bond resonate, and establishes genuine dread when Adonis naturally feels compelled to take one last battle — or die trying.
The Dragos Are More Prominent And Interesting Than You Might Expect
Creed II's very first scene is of Ivan and Viktor rather than Adonis and Rocky or Bianca, and the adversaries remain such a huge part of the story that one wonders if they're being set up for a spinoff. The conflict driving Viktor — the idea that his mother Ludmilla (Brigitte Nielsen) left because of his father's loss, and the family's subsequent status as social pariahs (they seem to be living hand to mouth) — isn't too far off from what Adonis is dealing with. Stallone and Taylor latch on to the idea as they try to craft a compelling narrative.
[Polygon]
Lundgren plays Drago as a Russian Mama Rose whose desire to relive past glories through his progeny reaches levels that would shame Ethel Merman. It's so excessively delicious you almost want an old man rematch between him and Rocky.
[The] Dragos remain, over the course of the film, a pair of emotional underdogs; we feel terrible for them. Even when the fighters' circumstances are somewhat reversed, and the Dragos find themselves suddenly back in the spotlight, wined and dined by the Russian elite, they remain a lonely, mopey father-son duo, with a surprisingly tender bond. They seem distinctly aware that all this glory is fleeting.
[Vulture]
Michael B. Jordan And Tessa Thompson Have Zero Trouble Making Us Care About Bianca And Adonis
Jordan and Thompson are excellent in a lovely and anxious scene in which Adonis proposes to Bianca; the actors make their characters' progression into married life, and eventually their role as parents, believable and moving… there's something uniquely special about the portrayal of family in Creed II, namely the way Adonis, Bianca, and their baby girl, Amara, come to represent perhaps the first dynastic black family in a major studio franchise. (That's a development that may well have come from Coogler, a credited producer here, given that his Black Panther is similarly invested in a sense of lineage.)
The glue that holds "Creed II" together is Caple's willingness to guide it into the terrain of a bittersweet melodrama. As his mother, Phylicia Rashad excels at conveying a parent's knowing smile with the slightest gestures. Thompson gets a handful of scenes to suggest that some of Adonis' rough intensity has rubbed off on her: She avoids the well-worn path of concerned damsel and actually empathizes with his struggle.
Stallone's Second Turn As Coach Balboa Does Land With The Same Impact As The First
In his new role as mentor and corner man, Rocky has become a less gruff though equally devoted incarnation of Burgess Meredith's Mickey. Knowing what Mickey meant to him, you can feel Rocky's desire to honor him and his job.
Watching Stallone in this role is like slipping into a pair of old running shoes, so beat-up and run-down you don't even bother to untie the laces. He's as charming and funny as he needs to be, and he gets you through.
[TIME]
The actor actually got an Oscar nomination for Creed, but he had to fight cancer in that one. Here, he mostly wanders around spouting sentimental clichés, without anything particularly compelling to do.
[Vulture]
The Story Shortchange's Adonis' Growth, Which Jordan Acts Around Outstandingly Nonetheless
What's really at stake is not Adonis' redemption but Rocky's. Even though Stallone plays a fairly small part in the movie, the script he co-authored ensures that Balboa's presence hangs over every frame. It's his decision to train Apollo for the fight that killed him that needs redressing, his victory over Ivan Drago that feels like it's still not quite enough. Adonis' story gets twisted to make Rocky's more interesting.
[Slate]
It's a state of emotional stymieing that Jordan pulls off well, particularly in light of a heavy-handed script. As Adonis is pushed into situations that are either nonsensical or require him to be an asshole for no discernible reason, Jordan makes the best of it, imbuing the character with enough charm that viewers will root for him anyway.
[Polygon]
Stallone And Taylor Mostly Opt To Rehash Old Material
Whether you read Rocky IV as pure patriotic propaganda or noncommittal satire on the absurdities of nationalism, it was very much a film of its time — one that endeavored to address the political climate of the Cold War era head-on. As such, it's not unreasonable to expect that Steven Caple Jr.'s Creed II, which revisits the rivalry between Rocky and Drago some 30 years later, might also address the very relevant realities of present-day Russian-American relations. Instead, Creed II's fealty is only to the contemporary standards of the sequel, built as it is according to a strict blueprint of narrative beats — those of Rocky IV — but rarely expanding on them.
It's like Creed II just decided to ignore the point of Creed so that writers Juel Taylor and Stallone could tell a similar story in a less compelling way. This means making Creed angry all over again and saying horrible things like throwing Rocky's cancer diagnosis in his face when Rocky says he won't train Creed for the fight against Drago. Creed doesn't really have a reason to be this angry and spiteful; the film just needs to reset him so we can get a weaker version of a story we've already seen.
[Collider]
The Boxing Scenes — Which The Movie Has To Nail — Aren't Quite As Good Compared To The First 'Creed'
Kramer Morgenthau's cinematography lacks the showy steadicam acrobatics of "Creed," but the climactic battle between Adonis and Viktor still delivers a dazzling light show that dovetails right into the visceral mayhem of the battle, captured from so many angles some viewers may reel from the punches themselves.
The change in hands is also reflected in how the fights come across. Punches still land with cringe-inducing impact, and both Jordan and Munteanu are experts at balancing the fight choreography with the emotions they're meant to be experiencing as rounds drag on, but otherwise, the fights fall curiously flat. There's no coherent sense of movement, which may have something to do with just how scattered the film feels as a whole.
[Polygon]
TL;DR
It's commendable that the film is committed to the character-based world building evident in the first "Creed." With this sequel, however, the Creed franchise seems destined to travel the same road the Rocky franchise did; the intensely personal and original vision of its creator is slowly being corrupted by the seductive demons of fan service.
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