I think the key to any great movie is,, at some point in watching,, you wonder if the antagonist or the villain is right.
It is at that point I believe you become emotionally invested in what you are watching. If you think of any of the best or most profitable movies of the 2000s, the one thing they have in common is an antagonist you can relate to.
When Michael B. Jordan took over the director reins of Creed, I believe he knew that if he trotted out another old Rocky villain from the past or a generic challenger, thee movie wouldn’t work. Jordan knew he had to bring a character that we all could relate to, and that is what he did with Damian Anderson.
Before we understand why the movie works so well, thanks to Diamond Dame, here is a brief synopsis of where we are in the Creed/Rocky Franchise. Light spoilers ahead/
Adonis Creed has retired from boxing as the undisputed heavyweight champion and #1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world after avenging his only loss to “Pretty” Ricky Conlan in Africa. Jump ahead three years, and Adonis is now a boxing promoter with a substantial stable of fights, including the current heavyweight champion. He is wealthy, living in a mega-mansion with his wife Bianca and their deaf daughter Amara. His mom Mary Ann Creed is recovering from some medical issues but is doing well.
In the trailers for the movie, you see part of a flashback sequence of Donnie and Damian when they were younger, and it is heavily implied something happened that caused Damian to go to jail for 18 years. That is when he reunites with Adonis outside of the gym.
The movie does an excellent job of making you feel sympathetic for Damian. He isn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last black man with a promising career that was was upended by mass incarceration, and when you find out exactly why he was incarcerated, it will make you sympathize with him even more. It gets to the point in the movie where even if some of his decisions are questionable, you understand why he did it.
The relationship between Adonis and Damian drives the story and makes you think about how your life would be if you went left instead of right or if your father didn’t happen to be Apollo Creed. Michael B. Jordan also drives home the point that you can have all the money and fame in the world, but can’t ignore your past until you reconcile with that, you can’t enjoy your present and future.
Without getting into too many details, Adonis and Damian have to fight to take the weight that has been weighing on both of them off their chest. It isn’t a traditional Rocky fight, which I believe is good. They also went away from the one thing that I think many Rocky Fans will admit they don’t like and got away from after the first two movies. Adonis is a skilled heavyweight champion with vast experience at this point in his career. Even with a three-year layoff, someone like Damian shouldn’t be bullying him in the ring. Adonis should have most of the advantages simply because of experience. They didn’t make the fight where Adonis got his ass kicked most of the time, then made a heroic comeback. The fight is more geared toward an experience champion fighting someone fighting like his life depended on it (think Mayweather-Maidana).
No movie is perfect,, and they could have done a couple of minor things better. How Damian gets his title shot with no experience or fights is ridiculous. It would have made more sense to add five minutes to the movie to show Dame fighting some lower-level competition on some undercards Adonis was putting on to get his record to at least, say, 5-0. You should see some spectacular knockouts. The media gets interested in this old guy who got out of prison and who is Adonis’ childhood friend, and THEN it makes more sense how in a pinch, he could get a shot at the title. Remember, Adonis had a bunch of fights in Mexico before he got his shot. Rocky was a club fighter with tons of fights before he got to fight Apollo. If Dame would have just had a few actual fights shown, I think it would have help him become more believable as an opponent.
The Bianca/Amara subplot probably could have been dropped and you coud have focused more of Damian’s comeback, more time with Mary Ann (Phylicia Rashad is FANTASTIC) or maybe introduce Apollo’s other two kids who are briefly mentioned but are never seen in any of the Creed movies even though they would be roughly the same age as Adonis.
Some of your favorite boxers show up in the movie, but I wont spoil it.
Excellent job by everyone specifically Michael B. Jordan and Joanthan Majors who is killing every role he is in. The whole time I was thinking was this a Kang variant that was a boxer? Michael B. Jordan shows why black directors matter because I don’t think a story like this could be told from a white director’s viewpoint. From the moment I saw Little Donnie and Damian in that car in the first secene it took me back to my childhood and I am sure a lot of black men will be able to relate to how easily their lives could have turned out like Damian’s.
8.5 out of 10 BSO stars