Creed — Blue Fairy Film Blog

Amid the turmoil over the lack of Oscar diversity this year, this was probably the weirdest and most unneeded oversight. While I don’t think Sylvestor Stallone did a bad job in his reemergence as Rocky Balboa, the limelight should have been reserved for the lead, Michael B. Jordan. If you’re thinking, “but what does Jordan truly accomplish besides showing Creed wants to be a boxer?” But isn’t that the exact same criteria the Academy used to nominate Stallone back in 1976 for the original “Rocky”? Adonis Creed deals with some of the exact same issues as Rocky did: finding love, being the underdog in an important fight, proving himself to professionals, and showing his mentor he can go the distance. Sure, Rocky Balboa also possessed near infant gentleness, best exhibited by his love for Adrian, but Creed makes up for this loss of complex emotional depth by showing an inner strength and resilience that is definitely needed in stories about underdogs.

Do I think Sylvester Stallone deserved to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor? That answer is a highly embittered, “no.” Not when that nomination could have easily gone to someone from “Straight Outta Compton,” or “The Big Short.” This is not to say Stallone isn’t giving his all here. Yes, most of the emotional dissonance that we experience comes from a personal matter more than any true complex inner demons, and it definitely was manufactured to give Rocky some depth, but it is still wondrous to see the old Oscar nominee actually give us our money’s worth. You have to remember that Stallone, while now an action movie staple, was once nominated for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, only the third person to ever do so besides Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin.

As a stand-alone narrative it’s not the best boxing film, but it’s definitely the best thing director Ryan Coogler could have created with the legacy of six other Rocky movies hanging in the balance. There’s a great use of music, cinematography, and interplay between the Creed of the past and the one of the present. The score is used to show the ascension of Creed’s bastard son to the upper echelons of the boxing world via the score. Creed also dates a woman slowly going deaf, who currently makes music which is mostly moody alternative that often sets the scene for romance.

Creed’s story will never resonate in the same way as the original “Rocky”. They can’t make the same story that started the original Rocky films: man makes his own opportunities via leaving poverty and loneliness against the system at large. Instead Creed has a harsh upbringing in a group home after his mother died. Undercutting that tension and emotional weight is his adoption by a wealthy woman. Adonis tries to be more than everything that has happened to him. He is trying to do his dead father proud. He doesn’t even speak to others about his past, because he is forging a new path. While that isn’t a complex ambition in the cinematic world, it is one that lends to an enjoyable if familiar story.