✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

Creed II film review ★★★★★

30 Nov 18 – 30 Nov 19, TIMES VARY

Fresh from his lead role in Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan returns to play Adonis 'Donnie' Creed in the latest addition to the Rocky saga

By Euan Franklin on 26/11/2018

Florian Munteanu and Michael B. Jordan in Creed II
Florian Munteanu and Michael B. Jordan in Creed II
Creed II film review 3 Creed II film review Celia Morris
The current Hollywood climate of sequels and prequels and remakes and reboots can spawn a fug of confusion, especially for those unfamiliar with the originals.


Creed II is confusing straight away because it’s a sequel to two movies: Creed and Rocky IV (itself a sequel); and, unlike its champion predecessor, director Steven Caple Jr. doesn’t make a Rocky for the modern world. It’s torn between providing something new and retreating back to the bombastic '80s, a time that feels awkward in modern filmmaking.


Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), son of the famous boxer Apollo Creed, becomes the heavyweight boxing champion of the world under the guidance of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). But Rocky’s Russian nemesis Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who killed Apollo in Rocky IV, returns to America with his new ferocious progeny Viktor (Florian Munteanu). He challenges Adonis for the heavyweight title, and Adonis feels obligated to accept as revenge for his father’s death in the ring.



Sylvester Stallone returns as the historic boxing champion Rocky Balboa


For a viewer unfamiliar with the Rocky mythology, this prompts a potentially befuddling experience. But co-writers Juel Taylor and Stallone himself do a decent job of making everything comprehensible, if a bit repetitive. Everything is spelled out, but characters are so intent on reminding everyone of the history between Rocky and Drago that it’s almost patronising.


Director Steven Caple Jr. employs a rough and dark style similar to Ryan Coogler's Creed, reaching into the fight with the characters, and, for a while, it's more about people than spectacle. Adonis is initially engaging and even his overdramatic streak is absorbing (the need to fight when there’s no real need to fight), with a blown up story that’s a whole lot of fun nonsense to enjoy.


But then it gets too silly, and everyone will know exactly when. In Creed, Coogler was wise to restrain the theatrics of the training montages, which forever belong to an emblematically 1980s period of Hollywood exaggeration. But Creed II tries to bring the era back in a bigger and more ridiculous way. Adonis’s own desert-set montage is so absurd that, even in the Rockyverse, it’s just too much. It’s hard to win us back after that.



Remaining quiet since Rocky IV, the infamous Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) returns for his honour


Despite the explosive displays of boxing bombast, the climax is a disappointing deflation. If there’s anything melodramatic we want from a Rocky IV sequel, it’s the explosive, historically belated rough-up between Rocky and Drago – instead, Caple Jr. settles for a few lukewarm stares across the ring. Yes, this is Creed’s film and that should be respected – but why bring in Drago at all if that conflict isn’t allowed to be gloriously fleshed out?


Even with its overlong narrative (132 minutes) and predictable character arcs, Creed II is still a fun spectacle to cheer along to. The film regrettably tries to dig up an expired age, but does create some dramatically charged and personal boxing scenes. It’s only a shame that silliness is the ultimate champion.




What Creed II film review
When 30 Nov 18 – 30 Nov 19, TIMES VARY
Price £ determined by cinemas
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 29 September –1 October. Photo: Frieze Sculpture Park
Things to do in London this weekend: 29 September – 1 October
London exhibitions to see this month
Top exhibitions on now in London
Omar Sy in Lupin part 3, Netflix (Photo: Netflix)
What to watch on TV this week

Editor's Picks

Donald Glover and Beyoncé voice Simba and Nala in Jon Favreau's The Lion King
The Lion King review
Ebla Mari and Dave Turner in The Old Oak (Photo: StudioCanal)
In cinemas this weekend: Ken Loach returns for another bleak but hopeful social drama
Shoplifters film review
Shoplifters film review
Eddie Redmayne returns as magizoologist Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald film review
Brie Larson in Unicorn Store
Best films on Netflix now
Coldplay, A Head Full of Dreams, in cinemas worldwide
20 years of Coldplay, in cinemas for one night only today
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Cinema

Creed II

Sylvester Stallone

Rocky

You might like

  • Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider's Web

    The Girl in the Spider's Web film review ★★★★★

  • Eva Green seizes her moment in Dumbo

    Dumbo review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×