Creed 2 Review

Creed 2, while a step-down from the first film, is still a great sequel. This movie is about Adonis Creed and Rocky, who must face ghosts of their past, when Ivan Drago’s son challenges Creed to a fight. Michael B. Jordan gives a fantastic performance. He is extremely convincing in the boxing scenes and also sells the emotional moments. Sylvester Stallone gives a great performance. While he has less to do this time around, he remains as compelling as ever. Dolph Lundgren and Florian Munteanu impressed me with their performances. They take what could have been a very cheesy side plot and ground it in reality. Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad give really good performances in supporting roles. Their characters are crucial to Creed’s story and they play off Jordan well. Steven Caple Jr. did a great job directing. The boxing scenes are well shot and thrilling to watch. The script is overall quite strong with characters that are easy to root for. At 130 minutes the pacing is good, but flawed. The first half is good, but never reaches greatness. The second half is much improved with an absolutely incredible finale that took my breath away. Overall, while Creed 2 is not quite as good as the first, it still is a great sequel, especially for Rocky fans.

8/10