Creed is Rocky's seventh film and a spin-off from the Rocky film series. During its six films, the Rocky Balboa franchise has inspired thousands of people with its message of overcoming, and by showing that anyone is capable of winning in life, if they believe in their potential. The franchise had been very well completed with Rocky Balboa (2006), who tied elements since the first film in the saga, and dealt with the boxer's aging issue as new generations appeared. Therefore, the proposal for a kind of sequence, or spin-off with the son of Apollo Creed, could sound out of place. Fortunately, this is a good example of how to make a mix of remake, reboot and continuation without offending the intelligence or indulging the fans' indulgence. In his re-reading of the 1976 film, screenwriter and director Ryan Coogler seems to be more concerned with giving new meaning to old images.
When we thought that the fighter's saga was over, behold young director Ryan Coogler (who emerged in the great "Fruitvale Station: The Last Stop", 2013) sought out Stallone with the idea of giving the saga a new lease of life, this time putting Rocky as the tutor of the son of Apollo Creed, greatest opponent and friend of the Italian Stallion. Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) spent the first years of his life in orphanages - the birth mother died early. Until he is found by Mary-Anne (Phylicia Rashad), Apollo's widow, who decides to adopt the boy. Cut to Adonis already grown up. He has a good job and lives in the adoptive mother's mansion and, without her knowing it, participates in clandestine boxing matches. He tries to integrate the gym where his father used to train, but they stop him. He lives in the shadow of Apollo. He decides to move to Philadelphia, where he looks for Rocky to train him. At first the veteran, who continues his lonely life playing at Adrian's restaurant, doesn't accept. However, each finds inspiration in the other to move on.
"Creed" goes hand in hand with "Rocky ". There is the inexperienced boxer with the chance to face the world champion, who needs to improve his image before the public. Love interest at first hesitant. The training. The fight. But just like in the Disney movie, there is more than just nostalgia. New characters are introduced for the current generation. Michael B. Jordan's Adonis is not Rocky. Their difficulties are different. Rocky represented an entire working class. Adonis has several internal conflicts. No less important. Coogler does not try to give Adonis a responsibility similar to Rocky's. The social commentary on Creed is shyer, less resonant, but it is still there: at a time when boxing makes headlines more for Floyd Mayweather's ostentatious style outside the ring, it ends up being an interesting starting point than Adonis's bow it involves renouncing wealth in order to, above honoring his father's name, earn street cred with black people from Philadelphia and prove that he is not just the Hollywood boy.
The director sees the paradox of classic sequences with maturity: it is necessary to provide again the elements that captivated the audience, while offering innovations, so as not to convey the impression of a simple copy - in which case the original film, strengthened in memory, always wins. And it does well in both ways. The script, also by Coogler in partnership with Aaron Covington, respects the Rocky tradition, paying homage to Stallone's previous work, but rejuvenates the franchise to the current audience. Rocky must deal with another adversary, the most difficult of his life, while Adonis tries to overcome the weight of being the son of a great fighter, and prove to himself that he is capable of creating a new legacy with the name Creed. It rescues the famous elements, such as the staircase, the theme songs and the accelerated montages during training. But the good news is that none of these key pieces appear as expected: the director manages to subvert the symbols of the franchise, interfering with the duration of the scenes and their use throughout the narrative. Likewise, there are dozens of references to all previous films, with the exception of the execrated Rocky V (1990), which, however, would have evident connections with the 2015 plot, about a new Rocky pupil. The script introduces the quotes in a discreet way (the turtles, the restaurant, the training with the chickens, etc.), seeking to please fans of the franchise without making it impossible for anyone who has never seen any film in the series.
Creed boldly studies Rocky's heart, rescuing a more innocent essence that allowed the 1976 classic to even reach an Oscar for Best Picture. Sylvester Stallone, in that case, did not want to do a project about boxing itself, in which the purpose was fighting, but a story about failure, about impossible dreams, the opportunities that come up to never return and, in the end, American dreams. Ryan Coogler, while responsible for the direction and co-writer of his feature film, seeks to express his own feelings about the franchise, with the peaks of energy, the struggles, being consequences of competent character studies. The affection that the script, for example, has for Stallone is touching, recovering the great artist that Sly has always been. Here, the opponent of Adonis, therefore, matters little, as it did not matter who Apollo was, in the original, but a metaphor for America and that alone.
The building of existing relationships in Creed is mainly based on the relationship between trainer and student. There is a sweetness in the presence of these characters and the relationship flourishes gradually, thanks to the talent of both, Stallone certainly delivers the best performance of his career so far, walking in a fine and charming line of resignation, with the arrival of old age, and the desire and the hope of seeing each other again in the game, even if that happens in the figure of his disciple.
The fight scenes, on the other hand, with long-lasting sequences, show a competent camera domain, yearning for their own identity, but, above all, Coogler's intention to control the action and embark the viewer on the protagonist's journey. Coogler and director of photography Maryse Alberti performed exquisite work in moving cameras, knowing how to create the right atmosphere for each scene, be it fighting or dialogue. Both use and abuse the tools of ultra-realism, with sweat, blood splashing and bodies falling brutally to the floor. The sound effects make the clash visceral, but the use of slow motion and inclined planes is so exaggerated that it borders on preciousness. They film objects in detail plans with obsession, from the city's traditional philly steak sandwich to the images of the ice bag and gel at the edge of the ring. This attempt to make everything more urgent and to register things "for real" extends to the sequential plans, several throughout the film. The most successful are Adonis' first two fights. In the first, the camera accompanies you in sequence from entering the ring to the knockout. In the second, there are two robberies staged in a single plane. The camera surrounds the fighters, comes and goes in close-ups for dramatic effect, and takes advantage when it is behind the actors' backs to catch the blows - so we can't see if the glove passes away from the face. The trick works, and in this scene Coogler has a good sense of suspense construction, like when the camera, after surrounding the actors, returns to Adonis' face to show the eyebrow he just opened. The edition of the Brazilian Claudia Castello and the American Michael P. Shawver give the right rhythm to each scene, sometimes more contemplative, emphasizing the drama, sometimes more energetic and explosive, emphasizing the action, the struggles. Also noteworthy is the soundtrack by Swede Ludwig Goransson, who creates a contemporary work in keeping with the reality of the ghetto, full of hip hop beats, and which does not give up parts of Bill Conti's immortalized soundtrack.
This search for authenticity in the record, which takes two thirds of Creed, is what allows the film to play itself in the fan service in the end. Hence the highlight goes to the new version of the staircase scene, in which Adonis - wearing the same gray tracksuit as Rocky, the same hat, the same gesture, even in the arms up - is accompanied by the blacks of the ghetto in the pike until the end from street. It is clear that Creed, in addition to building an imaginary of the city for himself, seeks to mark out these easter eggs in a new context, to validate them, and not simply to please the nostalgic.
Creed is moving without being mushy, electrifying without being bold and modern without forgetting everything that has been done before. It is a round film, made with care and a great desire to entertain and please with the basics, but without surrendering to the obvious. The film manages to restore what the struggle means within the franchise, even in the role of the character Bianca (Tessa Thompson), Donnie's supporting and love interest. The great Tessa Thompson, however, is underutilized, and the character's text is not the most organic, bordering on an artificial display of what her problems are. But Creed honors Apollo's legacy in such a passionate way that the scene of the boy imitating the blows struck in one of the battles between his father and, now, his trainer is a very solid example of what Creed wants to be. A work not only about being reborn as a name, but also about continuing a journey that spans generations. Survival ceased to be that raw of yore, however, the love for the love of sport and what it meant to your past. The punches that no longer need to be thrown, but must be thrown, confirm where a franchise is in the world that has always magnified us.
2 out of 2 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
