Review of Creed II (2018) by Viniciusbrito — 09 Feb 2019

Comparing to the first Creed this one lost strong in one aspect, wich is the direction, we won't find in her those incredible camera moviment, long takes and really smart positioning that we had with Ryan Coogler before, in here it is ok, there aren't many different or creative shots as we had in the first one, but this is by leveling from up there, because, again, is not bad at all, is just not very unique. The cinematography does have some nice points, but really few and fine, but again, there isn't comparison to the first one.

In the first film, and in other Rocky films, sometimes we had an opponent where he doesn't have much substence, it is just a strong and hard to beat dude, wich maybe what it is in Rocky 4 for example, and I found it very important to not be like that, when they made you care, almost equally to both sides, then this is a story that it is great, and, fortunately, this is what happens in here.

The way that they built the whole Victor Drago sequences is really good, he isn't just a evil guy that wants his name on the top, it is way beyond that, his back story with his mother and father are strong and you can see that he is doing that for bigger reasons, to make his dad proud and for take back their lifes how they were before Ivan lost the fight for Rocky, and you can see that a lot of times, how Victor react to certain things in some moments are really touching, you wish him better and you unserstand him. Considering this, it gives a nice resume of how this movie reaches in our personal life, this movie is a lot about fatherhood. We have the Drago relationship, the kid trying to "fix" old things and making his dad proud. Adonis with his daughter, that gave him a lot of extra, gave him inspiration to go on and be better with his hardwork. And Stallone with his son, that he wants to speak with him, but it is afraid of getting into ans messing something up, so as with his father, that he still wants to make him proud and make the name giant, it is very well made. This is strong, father and son relationship is a strong thing, able to make you do things that you wouldn't believe, with the body and even more with the mind, and I think that the film represents this really well.

There are two training sequences herre, the first isn't a big deal, there is a nice montage with a cool ending, but nothing very special or different. Now, the second one is amazing, they go all the way back into no training in technological places and going to nature, get into the desert and that whole sequence is so great, so inspiring, so strong, so painful and raw, they could do a different thing with different training sessions or even the same but in different ways that end up being fantastic.

Ivan Drago character was really good, almost everything, since where and how he lives with his son and how he manages to do the training, you can see the necessity to win and get back what he used to have before the Rocky 4 fight. More to the end one thing happen and there you can see a big character transformation, was really emotional and really well done, wich also is in function of the very nice Dolph Lundgren job together with the Florian Munteanu job, they both had nice chemistry, we could totally see how Victor was struggling and trying to help his father to get back up in life and the end he have some really touching moments, they both.

Another nice script moment is the one where Adonis and Bianca daughter was born, in determined moment a possible tense moment is happening and it is crucial for what is going on in the story, and the way that it is done, without even one dialogue, showing great acting by Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, it was so strong and so real, one of the best scenes in the whole film. Stallone is also great in this film, he is a lot like in the first one, but in here he does have a nice improvment in the fatherhood part also at the training one during the desert. There are some really nice dialogues in this film, some really deep and wise things said that can be used in your life. There are strong and provocative moments that worked just well with Ivan Drago. But at the same time there some that could have had better moments, like the first conversation between Rocky and Ivan, it was ok, but it could have been even stronger. Dialogues between Adonis and Bianca in this one also get much better, Bianca have way more to do in here and she helps a lot in the inspiring part.

Creed 2 gets exactly where it should, it is not just a boxe movie, it is a movie that talks about life, about struggle, change, difficulties and how to get up and keep fighting, even when you fall, get up and keep there because it is worthy the hard work of something that you love. Talking a lot about parenthood, making others proud and having something more to keep you hardcore, this is what it is about and it is beautiful and inspiring.