Creed (2015)
Directed by Ryan Coogler
The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.
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After six movies in the “Rocky” series (including “Rocky Balboa”)—let alone the recent “Grudge Match,” which obviously played off them as well as “Raging Bull,” and even a Broadway musical based on the first picture—one might have thought that we’ve seen enough of Sylvester Stallone’s Philly pugilist, but “Creed” proves that there’s life in the old Italian Stallion yet.
It compares to the early fights in Raging Bull, where Michael Chapman's camera lurks like an animal.
Of course, the debate usually settles down between Robert De Niro's "Raging Bull" and Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky."
Rocky and Raging Bull have, for decades, defined how boxing is approached cinematically.
"Creed" is no "Raging Bull" -- it's a little too long and throws in an unnecessary disease to gin up the emotional content of the third act -- but it's surprising proof that iconic franchises that started in the 1970s can be revived in all the right ways.
Coogler directs some of the best fight sequences since Scorsese’s Raging Bull, including a first fight that plays like one take.
(The two previously collaborated on the essential, and underrated, 2013 drama "Fruitvale Station.")
With his “Rocky” spinoff, “ Creed ,” writer-director Ryan Coogler confirms every bit of promise he displayed in his 2013 debut, “Fruitvale Station,” offering a smart, kinetic, exhilaratingly well-crafted piece of mainstream filmmaking, and providing actor Michael B. Jordan with yet another substantial stepping stone on his climb to stardom.
And Coogler, riding a wave of success following his debut (“Fruitvale Station”), put his creativity in the service of another artist’s characters.
Two years ago, its director, Ryan Coogler, collaborated with Jordan on Fruitvale Station, which depicted the senseless death of a 22-year-old black man named Oscar Grant at the hands of a Bay Area policeman.
This stirring, heartfelt, rough-grained reboot of the “Rocky” series is the brainchild of Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”), who directed, wrote the story, and co-wrote the script with Aaron Covington.
But director Ryan Coogler (who previously teamed with Jordan for 2013’s fantastic Fruitvale Station ) forgoes scenes of drinking raw eggs and meat-locker boxing, instead helming the movie like any true prodigy would — by making Creed distinctly his own.
The new film "Creed" references this photo from the original "Rocky" film from 1976 in which Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa fights Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed in a championship boxing bout.
If the plot of "Creed" echoes the original "Rocky," at least it's echoing something worthwhile.
It’s a bit of a strange coincidence that seventies titans Star Wars and Rocky both have their seventh instalments in cinemas at the same time, particularly as both new films deliberately hark back to the specific story beats of their original movies.
Fresh from "Fruitvale Station," his impressive, Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning debut, writer-director Coogler presents the very different "Creed," a film that is nominally a spinoff of the celebrated "Rocky" series but actually plays like something more interesting: a spiritual remake of the 1976 film that retells the original story in the kind of involving way one would not have thought possible.
But by taking all the good will that was originally generated when “Rocky” won the Oscar for best picture and combining that with what little credibility remains in the character, co-writer/director Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”) packages together a tender, exciting and respectful film.
Com isso, a aposta dos realizadores de transformar o velho protagonista em coadjuvante e eleger um personagem novo ao posto de centro da narrativa acaba se revelando acertada, o que talvez nos leve a ignorar a magnitude do risco assumido pela série, já que relegar Rocky ao segundo plano seria como produzir um novo Star Wars e deixar Luke de lado para se concentrar em heróis dos quais jamais ouvíramos fal...
It’s a bit of a strange coincidence that seventies titans Star Wars and Rocky both have their seventh instalments in cinemas at the same time, particularly as both new films deliberately hark back to the specific story beats of their original movies.
Admittedly, Coogler has opted to take the Star Wars approach to breathing new life into the Rocky story, by plucking the best bits of the Oscar-winning original and building a fresh story around it.
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Sylvester Stallone paid proper tribute and respect to his character Rocky Balboa with the final chapter in his saga “ Rocky Balboa .”
Meanwhile, likably game as Stallone was in going another few rounds for 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” it’s nothing compared to how enjoyable he is — and affecting — in his new less-is-more supporting role.
From there, it became slightly gimmicky, bringing in a kid for Rocky V, then going for the standard return-to-roots comeback vibe with Rocky Balboa .
But, as a Rocky movie, it does manage two important things: It hits on the inspirational spirit the movies strive for and sometimes achieve ( Rocky, Rocky Balboa , sometimes Rocky II ), but often failed to ( Rocky III, IV , and V ), and it introduces a new character who stands on his own as someone worth paying attention to and investing in (unlike Tommy in V ).
It's clear that Coogler loves the franchise — even some of the bad bits — peppering in nods to the previous films wherever he can, be they references to Rocky and Apollo's third and final fight in Rocky III or that famous training montage.
Every movie in the Rocky series is referenced in ways both minor (Rocky’s turtle!) and major (who won the secret fight at the end of Rocky III is finally revealed).
Apollo (Carl Weathers) had made the unlikely transition from unbeatable foe (“Rocky”) to beatable foe (“Rocky II”) to training montage buddy (“Rocky III”), rendering his demise both unexpected and traumatizing, putting not just Apollo’s legacy on Rocky Balboa’s back, but America’s!
And even once Apollo Creed and Rocky become best friends in Rocky III, there’s still the matter of Clubber Lang (Mr. T), an even flashier and cockier black guy he has to contend with.
He never knew his father, who was killed in the ring in the absurd Rocky IV — a film that’s in a different sphere than this one.
Adonis’ fight scenes are choreographed with both technical fluidity and a palpable intensity: Heads don’t dramatically snap back like they did when the Italian Stallion fought Drago in Rocky IV — instead, the blows land with a realistic force.
Después vendrían cinco películas más de la saga, con resultados bien dispares, siendo tal vez la tercera y la quinta las más bajas, y “Rocky IV” un clásico, pero en otro sentido, muy distinto al de la original.
For those who don’t remember, Apollo Creed died fighting Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV." Twenty years later, though he’s landed what seems to be a nice job with a financial firm, Adonis has been spending time in Mexico, prizefighting.
Creed centers on Adonis Johnson Creed, the son of Rocky's enemy-turned-friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), who died in the ring in Rocky IV.
Instead, he energizes them through simple and persuasive means, including the rangy, purposeful use of widescreen (the bobbing, fluid cinematography is by Maryse Alberti, who also shot The Wrestler, as well as Velvet Goldmine and Tape) and a judiciously chosen hip-hop soundtrack that nods to local heroes (Meek Mill gets pride of place) while playfully interpolating the melody of Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now,” holding back the actual, bombastic fanfare until he really needs it like a fighter preserving his haymaker for the final round.
Simple locations and low-key lighting by cinematographer Maryse Alberti (“The Wrestler,” “Velvet Goldmine”) elevate the convivially gritty mood.
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Thus, it is something of a hard sell to imagine Creed as anything more than an opportunistic cash grab for franchise nostalgia, but 29-year-old Coogler, who was still a decade from being born when Rocky (1976) won the Best Picture Oscar over the heavily favored Network (1976), infuses his film with a genuine passion and unironic attachment to the original’s best qualities, particularly its delicate balancing act between anguish and triumph.
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