BY Blake Laurita
Staff Writer
A spinoff of one of the most successful movie franchises ever, “Creed” lives up to the hype, pleasing original Rocky fans, and winning over audiences unfamiliar with the Rocky franchise with a modern twist on the classic underdog tale.
“Creed” is very well produced, with expertly shot scenes of intense boxing matches which are accompanied by an outstanding soundtrack. The movie also does a wonderful job of providing a high level of depth to all the characters, with each one having specific goals and aspirations. In addition, the actors do a brilliant job executing their parts, giving new life to an old franchise.
The movie follows Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) the son of former heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed, who died in the ring before Adonis was born. Although Adonis grew up with a good education and had a white collar job, boxing was in his blood and his passion for the sport eventually takes over, causing him to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Having nobody to train him, he seeks out former boxing champion and friend of his father, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Rocky sees much of himself in the young fighter and agrees to mentor him. Adonis soon gets a title shot with the help of Rocky but whether he lives up to his family name remains to be seen.
Since the movie is mainly about boxing, fight scenes are an integral part of the movie and they are done extremely well. They are very realistic and shot continuously making each scene look like a real boxing match. They are also suspenseful and action packed, filled with very realistic special effects detailing bloody injuries made by the punches.
Another highlight of the movie is the soundtrack, which combines modern hip hop songs with songs from the original Rocky movies. The songs really set the mood of the fights, and were essential to Adonis’ training montages. The brilliant soundtrack found in “Creed” helped emphasize the film’s most important moments, tying together the original franchise with its newest installment.
While “Creed” mainly focuses on Adonis, the movie does a good job of developing all supporting characters by showing the audience different things going on in other characters lives. All major characters, have a rich background, and their own goals in life. An example of this is how Adonis’ love interest, Bianca (Tessa Thompson) is an aspiring musician who has hearing problems and will eventually become completely deaf. By doing this, the movie makes all characters interesting, providing more chances to relate with their lives and aspirations.
Arguably the film’s strongest aspect was its actors. Jordan and Thompson have good chemistry in the movie and it makes their on-screen relationship feel realistic and genuine. Stallone delivers as well playing the role of Adonis’ mentor and father figure. The award winning performances given by all three of actors propelled this movie to new levels.
Much like how Adonis wants to follow in the footsteps of his father but still have his own identity, “Creed” wishes to follow in the footsteps of the original Rocky movies but still have its own identity, and it completely succeeds at this goal with well shot fight scenes, a great soundtrack, complex characters and award-winning acting.
“Creed” was released Nov. 15, is rated PG-13, and is playing in theaters across the nation.
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