I’m a huge fan of boxing, and I’ve liked every Rocky movie aside from Rocky IV. (I just thought the Russian villain was too cartoonish.) Most critics have disliked many of the Rocky films which always surprised me. I was also surprised most of them have liked the Creed pictures. I didn’t like the first two. Now, Michael B. Jordan steps out of the ring and behind the camera to direct. And yes, he’s also in the movie, and yes, it follows all the predictable paths you’d expect. But hey…there’s only so much you can do with a boxing film.
We get flashbacks to early 2000 in L.A. when Creed is a 15-year-old, supporting his buddy Damian Anderson in his Golden Gloves boxing pursuits. The movie often goes back to this situation, to show the friendship between the two men that are now rivals, but it has a segment I hated for two reasons. I was just telling a woman, who loved The Notebook, how I thought the fact that letters were withheld from the girl but also saved, just didn’t make sense. If a parent is keeping letters hidden from a suitor to their child, why not toss them? What’s the point in saving them? And so it was crazy that a few days later I’m seeing that done here, and even more frustrating that it’s with Phylicia Rashad. First, her acting in this was awful. Second, why haven’t we canceled her? She basically came out and said these women that were raped are lying about Bill Cosby.
As annoying as it was to see Rashad on screen, this might not be the popular opinion, but my wife and I also didn’t care for the child in this, played by deaf actress Mila Davis-Kent. We found her annoyingly over the top.
The story involves a now retired Adonis Creed running a gym with a stable of young fighters. His wife Bianca’s (Tessa Thompson) hearing loss has gotten worse so she has moved from performing to producing music (and very successfully). They have a huge mansion, and the biggest problem Creed has to deal with is his daughter bugging him while he naps, so he can join her for a tea party in a dinosaur outfit. Oy.
The one bright spot in this movie is Jonathan Majors, as Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson. Majors is having a major moment these days; playing a real life pilot in Devotion, doing a good job as the villain in Ant-Man a few weeks ago, and playing a menacing villain in this. It’s not an exaggerated character, and you actually feel bad for him when you see the rest of the backstory that led to his arrest.
The pacing of this film is bogged down by a lot of the relationship drama thrown at Creed. And I wouldn’t have a problem with that, if it weren’t for the cliche way in which it was done. It’s hardly interesting to have Bianca constantly nagging her husband to tell her about his past, and him being so reluctant to do so. Even in a great film like Good Will Hunting, I had a hard time buying that Matt Damon’s character wouldn’t want to tell his girlfriend about his horrible upbringing. My wife also brought something up that I didn’t even catch. She had a hard time buying that a little girl (I’m guessing the daughter is around 8-years-old) is ringside watching these boxing matches. Uh, these things are brutal and not for kids. Especially if your dad is in the ring. Perhaps they don’t remember that her grandfather Apollo died in the ring!! Or they never saw what happened in The Champ. But I digress.
One of Adonis’ fighters is heavyweight champion Felix Chavez, who seems to pummel his sparring partners. Since Damian wants to resurrect his career, they let him spar. And it’s smart how the filmmakers let that evolve. I thought it was going to be like Adam Carolla’s underrated boxing movie The Hammer, where the sparring session results in the champ being knocked out by an unknown. How it’s done in this film is great, as are all the boxing sequences Jordan gives us. In fact, the last fight did an interesting thing with the two fighters where the crowd disappears and we’re just watching them practice the sweet science. My wife and I were talking about that for a few minutes on the ride home, both of us agreeing it was a neat segment.
Major's boxing style made me think of Ken Norton. Some local fun facts on Norton: while in the Marines, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton. When he fought Ali at the San Diego Sports Arena, Norton broke Ali’s jaw and won the fight (they fought two more times, and even though Ali was awarded the wins on split decisions, most boxing experts agree Norton was robbed on one of those). But, back to fictional boxing…
The segment that leads to the big fight, with Damian getting his big shot, is a bit contrived and doesn’t actually make sense if you really think about it.
The movie was humorless and nothing we haven’t seen before. It’s a shame because a compelling drama could’ve come out of these former friends trying to reconcile and having some beef with each other at the same time.
I liked seeing Stephen A. Smith in this. I’m a fan of his takes on sports shows. It was also nice to see the great boxing announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., instead of the usual Michael Buffer. But the best part of this is Majors. He can give you so much with just his eyes and facial expressions, and he’s a real treat here.
I was 13-years-old when Rocky III came out. My friends and I thought Mr. T was the scariest, baddest villain ever (and he went on to become a huge star after that). Majors is on his way to becoming a major A-lister. He’s just terrific. It’s just a shame the movie is more of the same (although it is my favorite of the three Creed films).
2 stars out of 5.