Review of Creed II (2018) by Alex G — 25 Nov 2018

What a disappointment. The promise of this concept is enormous, but the movie takes the most boring and lazy approach to every aspect of the story. The set ups and pay offs are broadcast from a speaker. Outside of Rocky and the Drago family, the characters have nothing to say or offer. Who is Creed besides an entitled and spoiled fighter? How are we supposed to care about Bianca's music career if the movie can't even remember to give her personal life time to develop? Time jumps all over the place and we never know why any of it really matters? This should be a film all about emotion and there is nothing but the hallmark card it came riding in on.

Imagine if in the first fight, Creed faces Drago--this giant of a man, scary as can be--and Creed loses himself to the fight. This monster of a man is killed by Creed and Creed has to live with the consequences? Imagine if this movie explored the darker side of this fight--Russia's doping, the horrible life this man had to lead to get to this point? What if Creed and Drago found friendship and camaraderie like Rocky and Apollo developed--through this fucked up history their parents faced, they are the only ones who get the pressure this fight has raised in them.

What happened to Creed's siblings? We now he has brothers based on Rocky 3 (I think it's Rocky 3). Does Bianca have literally no family or friends?

In the original Rocky movies, every supporting character mattered as much to the story as Rocky himself. The characters weight was felt, even in the sequels long after they died. Now, the supporting characters are there because the story requires it and nothing more.

Based on the early rumors of this movie, I imagine Sylvester Stallone had a very different movie when he was directing. This bad fan fiction has moments of life--mostly when Rocky is doing the talking or alone in a scene. At the least the only place you can go from here is up...or so bad it's entertaining. This boring average regurgitation of better films would have been better served as a Drago movie.