‘Creed II’ Isn’t In The Same Weight Class As ‘Creed,’ But It’s Got Heart

Author: Chris Klimek / Source: NPR.org

In 1985’s Rocky IV, the most most high-and-tight entry in the formerly-shaggy Rockiad, an age-obsessed Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) laments to his opponent-turned-pal Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) that “we’re turning into regular people.

” Apollo’s obsession with proving he can still compete after half a decade in retirement leads him to pursue an exhibition match with genetically engineered Soviet supercomrade Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who beats Apollo to death. It’s a 91-minute movie that’s at least one-third montage, and shorn of the rough edges that made its predecessors so winning, it was the biggest hit of the series.

Three decades later, 2015’s Creed didn’t redeem the creaky franchise — its prior entry, 2006’s Rocky Balboa, was almost as favorably received and successful as Creed was, and neither of those late, great entries banked nearly as much cash as their dumber 1980s predecessors. But Creed indisputably re-lit the torch, giving us an ascendant pair of stars in Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, an astute young storyteller in co-writer/director Ryan Coogler (who’d go on to make Black Panther), a renewed sense of Philadelphia as an environment and a warm chemistry between Michael B. and Sly, in one of his finest, most vanity-free performances.

It would be almost impossible for Creed II to land with the same force, and unlike Rocky Balboa or Adonis Creed, it doesn’t defy the odds. This is a more listless and ordinary film than Creed by any measure, but still a rewarding one, inviting us to share “Donny” (Jordan) and Bianca’s (Thompson) prosaic struggles with new parenthood and their flourishing careers in, respectively, prizefighting and music — professions that seldom offer stability or longevity — while Donny weathers his first experience of defeat.

Their maturing relationship is persuasively dramatized; the unconvincing rift that develops in the Donny-Rocky bond when Rocky urges Donny not to fight, less so. Rocky is, as his dead pal Paulie used to tell him, “all heart” and zero calculation, but even he ought to figure reverse psychology would work better at this point: Yo, kid, we all know you could take this scary guy who outweighs you by like 40 pounds, no problem. Of course you could. No need to get your skull caved in proving it.

At once hypermasculine and shamelessly shamelessly schmaltzy, these Rocky/ Creed movies have always treated their heroes’ compulsion to prove themselves and re-prove themselves (and also to reproof themselves) as an incurable mental illness that they and their partners and friends just have to manage. For those of us who can’t help but watch them through a forgiving lens, it’s enough simply to spend time with these characters…

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