Adonis Johnson had a tough start in life as he never met his father who died before he was born. When his mother also died it looked like the end of the road, until his father’s wife decided to take him in. Who was his father? Apollo Creed of course! He wants to be a fighter in his own right and not rely on the name . . .
I first have to just tell or remind everyone that I really do have such a love for the Rocky series and therefore was very curious about this film and how it was all going to work. I had heard all good things about the film before eventually managing to get to the cinema to see it. Firstly must say that it really is very good and a hell of a lot more emotional than I ever expected!
I really enjoyed the opening scene with a young Adonis as I thought it really helped set the back story and where he was heading if Mary Anne had not saved him from the downfall. The thing is though even from such a young age he had fighting in him and that’s all he had ever wanted to do.
As we then flash forward to the present day and see that he is still wanting to pursue fighting, he even travels to Mexico to have fights and then back to his office job. It’s not until he is offered a promotion he decides its now for never and opts to really give it a final shot for fighting. Not that his fathers old gym will actually train him though, so you can see where this is going and obviously. He heads to Philadelphia to track down Rocky Balboa and ask him to be is trainer.
The problem is though Rocky has no interest in boxing or well anything else anymore he is set in his ways and very lonely. It’s not until he finds out that Apollo Creed is Adonis’ father that he is very interested in the young man. I have to mention a particular scene with Rocky that almost reduced me to tears, it honestly made my eyes fill up so much to see him sitting at Paulie and Adrien’s graves talking to them. Like surely the film could have came with a warning that it was so emotional as it got even worse than that!
I thought it was interesting to have two real boxers in different roles and that does two things adds the real fighting edge to those scenes as well as showing that the boxing world must be very in favour of the Rocky franchise to be part of the films. I was shocked that Everton managed to get so much exposure in this one though wasn’t expecting that at all.
As always the training scenes don’t disappoint and you find yourself well and truly in the corner of our new “hero” or key player not really sure the best way to put that. But we are rooting for him and with the incredible Rocky on his side surely that gives you even more reason. Honestly Stallone as Rocky is one of my all time favorite characters/performances ever just love him!
I don’t want to mention too much more to do with the plot although a lot of things are really shown in the trailer in all honesty. My only problem had to be how quickly a romance came about with neighbor Bianca, something that did not really have the biggest impact on the overall story (in my opinion anyway).
I thought Michael B. Jordan really put in a good performance and had plenty of not only physical scenes but also emotional moments as he had to take on the anger of his character. This obviously got him in trouble and created some very tense moments throughout.
Another brilliant installment in the Rocky franchise but also has a feeling of passing the baton to someone else to take it in a new direction. Rumours are already flying around that Creed 2 is in the works.
