Although Creed II completes the battle of Adonis Creed to prove its own identity, it falls victim to the same lesson it must learn: the only way to live up to the legacy is to create your own. Unfortunately the Creed II doesn't do that.
The reason for the huge success of the original great movie Ryan Kugler directed in 2015 was because he told us an old story in a new way, and he always knew when to exaggerate a little and when to take things off. And this is the balance that director Stephen Cabley, Jr., tries to strike in the same way but fails massively. Creed II is trying so hard to live up to its first installment that it is losing a lot of its own identity, we could have gotten a much more interesting storyline instead of reworking a movie that actually veered from the classic 1976 movie.
The film continues with Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) at the top of the boxing world and indulging in some of the pomp that his father is famous for, and enters the first match in the movie with the immersive drama that accompanies the arrival of Ricky Conlan in the last match in the movie Creed. The first thing you see your hero doing is that instantly reminds you of the movie's past villain, so you know immediately what the character's story will be like. And it looks like a big part of the drama is already known and thus steals a lot of excitement, and this is precisely what is frustrating given who is standing on the other corner of the ring.
As much as the previous installment tries to break out of the shadow of the past, the Creed II, on the other hand, contains many muddled references to the series' history. It might be cool to hear Evan Drago say his famous phrase "break him" once ... but you'll hear it too much. There is also a returning Rocky IV character who does nothing but upset father and son Drago and miss another opportunity to show their motivation. There is one brilliant, brilliant scene that reflects the classic Rocky image in the early days of the movie and that comes into place completely, but many of the other mentions in the movie come only superficially and you don't get to reach the magnificence or power of that scene.
Creed II made a big bet by introducing Victor Drago and his father, Evan, in the two villains role. The movie continues to constantly remind us that Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring just before Adonis was born. Ivan's subsequent loss to Rocky the Avenger causes him to be destroyed and his family flee to Russia bearing shame. So Victor's story parallels that of Adonis, a man whose turbulent upbringing came as a result of that fateful match. There was an opportunity to make Victor a masked enemy of Adonis, but the movie does not allow us to get to know Victor or what he wants, so it does not succeed in attracting the attention of the viewers.
And Drago Sr. is not getting more successful. Although Dolph Lundgren manages to send Evan bitterness about losing everything due to his match against Rocky, his cruelty towards his son causes distraction and makes him less dynamic than he could be. Rocky Balboa in the first Creed movie has seen a great development as he ponders his past, but Drago Sr. doesn't get a similar opportunity here, as we see no remorse for him for killing Apollo. The movie spends a lot of time and shows us how selfish Ivan Drago is, so much so that towards the end any sympathy the film expects us to feel towards him will seem fake.
While father and son Drago disappoint with the role of the villains, the central trio of Adonis, Rocky and Bianca easily wins our sympathy and carries the weight of the entire movie through its vulnerable parts. The struggles these three characters have to overcome outside of the boxing ring are far more interesting than any matches inside it. Adonis’s personality proves to be much more fragile as his fight this time is more against himself than against his father’s ghost and his constant desire to create his own legacy.
Sylvester Stallone still performs his influential godfather to Adonis here. Although his role is smaller this time in terms of action-packed boxing matters, he excels at helping Adonis with humility and reminding him of the goal he is fighting for.
Stallone's agonizing struggle over whether to support Adonis to fight Drago is also understandable given the great sense of guilt he still feels for what happened with Apollo. Yes, of course, there are certain parts of this movie that rely too much on the past, and although this is Adonis' brilliance on the boxing ring, Stallone deserves to stay here as well and end up getting the biggest laughs and the most exciting moments in the movie.
As for Tessa Thompson, she continues to shine as Bianca, keeping Adonis' growing ego under control while showing as much courage as her partner while fighting her own battles. What keeps the movie compelling and powerful is Adonis Brooke and Bianca's relationship, which in turn is the one thing that keeps Creed II on its right track in a number of ways. We want Adonis to win largely because it would be very painful to see the pain that Rocky and Bianca put in go to waste.
This is because the matches in this movie can be easily forgotten, and this is not only because Creed's opponent is just a mysterious and not exceptional character, but because of the very direct cinematography of these scenes that does not have any of the vitality that characterized the games of the previous film.
