Creed is a movie about boxing, but it’s not a boxing movie. Creed is about fighting, but more so with internal demons than any human adversary. I don’t normally do movie reviews, mostly as I don’t have lots of time to go out and see them, but with everything that I’ve seen this year Creed managed to do something that no other film this year could -It made me feel something. Not only is this a fantastic boxing movie, it’s a very solid drama film in its own right, and more than that, it’s simply a beautiful film that is the strongest, and most grounded Rocky since the original film in this long running series.
Creed walks a fine line of not only trying to fill some pretty big shoes, but in how the film is structured. What we get is a sort of retelling of the original film, but with the players in new positions on the board. Rocky Balboa is now an aged man living quietly, running the same restaurant in Philadelphia while Creed is a young upstart whose story in the boxing world is just begging. The story takes all the major beats of the original film and adds some needed emotional punch that the series has never seen before on this level. Creed has grown up without a father figure (he is the illegitimate son of the former champion) in his life and yet still is forced to live in the shadow of said famous father. He has fought all his life to scrape out a place of his own, even when he is saved from the streets by Apollo’s wife, but nobody around him is willing to give it to him. His fathers old gym sees him as a privileged child without the and so Creed spends his time fighting on the weekends in Mexico. While showing great skill Creed is self-taught and after being put in his place by a real championship fighter, leaves his comfortable world behind in search of his fathers best friend in hopes of carving out his own story.
The pair form a reluctant bond, but it’s much more than something as simple as trainer and pupil. Each character in the film needs the other as they fight to overcome their own fears of the future and their troubled pasts. Creed truly fears that he was nothing but a mistake and not worthy of the Creed name, and Rocky facing his own mortality in a time when everyone that he has loved is now gone or moved on. As this is Rocky film there are a number of fantastic training montages that have come to define the series, but it is far less here than in other installments. Creed is more about relationships than the actual championship fight at the climax of the film. This works in that it gives both Creed and Rocky real depth and character development, but it makes the films antagonist nothing more than just filler. This may sound strange, but not focusing on the fight while still training for the fight gives us a unique look into the real heart of a fighter. Creed isn’t the unproven underdog fighting the champ in some staged beat-down like Apollo did with Rocky in the first, (even though that is how it is still set up here) instead, Creed is fighting against himself in and outside the ring and proving that he is his father’s son.
The cinematography, by Maryse Alberti, is stunning, especially with regards to the work done in the ring. Never before has the series seen more visceral fighting with a level of honest brutality that has never before seen on film. Even the love story that is weaved throughout the film works well and gives Creed his own Adrian analogue. Where the movie really succeeds is in how well it is paced. Creed knows when to drop in some humor in-between moments that will have series fans, and regular viewers tearing up. Watching the roles reversed within the film with Rocky and Creed will have fans breaking down into blubbering messes as they each face their own demons that many of us can relate with on a very personal level. The acting is fantastic and Sylvester Stallone shows acting chops that some are calling good enough to be in contention this award season. While I won’t go that far (yet) he shows a level of understanding for his character and the struggle he faces in a way that is captivating for a film of this nature. It’s safe to call Creed the best acting work Stallone has ever put to celluloid since the original Rocky, and after coming off the dismal Fantastic 4, Michael B. Jordan shows us why he is one of Hollywood’s rising young stars.
Creed does the almost impossible by being a serious drama piece wrapped within a boxing movie. It will have fans of the series wanting more and will have those new to Rocky praising it as a film. It’s not often that a film gets me teared up, and while I am a fan of the series (minus part 5) and may be a little biased, Creed is still a fantastic film, and one that will easily be on many a top films of the year list.
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