Creed II is a drama directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Sascha Penn and Cheo Hodari Coker. A sequel to Creed (2015) and the eighth installment in the Rocky film series. Creed II was definitely a film I wanted to skip, I am so glad I didn’t, as the movie was quite entertaining, despite the same old plot and a predictable outcome.
Creed II follows a fight over 33 years in the making, as the current heavy weight champion meets a new adversary in the ring. Three years after his loss to “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Anthony Bellew), Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) scores several wins, culminating in a victory over Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler (Andre Ward) to win the WBC World Heavyweight Championship. Now a worldwide star, Adonis proposes to his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) who agrees to marry him.
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Meanwhile, a former Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who was responsible for the death of Adonis’ father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) thirty-three years earlier, sees an opportunity to regain the glory he lost in Moscow fighting Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) by pitting his son, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) against Adonis. However, Rocky refuses to support Adonis’s decision to accept Viktor’s challenge, so feeling betrayed by Rocky’s decision, Adonis moves to Los Angeles where he and Bianca settle down in a luxurious apartment close to Adonis’s adoptive mother and Apollo’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). As Adonis and Bianca adjust to their new life on the west coast and prepare for the upcoming match with Viktor, Bianca learns that she is pregnant. Caused to choose a new trainer, Adonis recruits Tony “Little Duke” Evers (Wood Harris), son of his father’s trainer, as Rocky’s replacement. Overwhelmed with all the recent developments in his life, Adonis rushes into the match, getting himself badly injured. Viktor gets disqualified for hitting Adonis while he is down, allowing Adonis to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
At this point you might think I’ve revealed the entire story but I haven’t even gotten started. Creed II is packed full of excitement and twisted plots. There is much more to explore and learn about the life of Adonis. Knowing that Adonis and Viktor will fight again you have to wonder how it happens and who will emerge the victor. I liked Creed II very much but I wouldn’t want to see a Creed III. The actors were brilliant and Creed II is a nice way to end the Rocky series. Sylvester Stallone’s enunciation was better than any other movie I’ve seen him in, I actually understood every word. I recommend seeing Creed II — Check it out!
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