I’m not one for sports films nor have I watched any of the entries in the Rocky franchise aside from the first one. I was persuaded to add this to my watch list by the excellence of Sinners and the realization that it was Creed that convinced Hollywood that Ryan Coogler could be trusted with a blockbuster film. It’s impressive that he not only directed this, he also wrote the screenplay. The result is as good a passing-the-torch movie as you could ask for while staying firmly within the established conventions of the franchise.

Adonis Johnson is a troubled boy in a youth detention center when the widow of Apollo Creed, Mary Anne, reveals that he is the son of Apollo from an extramarital affairs and takes him in. As such he grows up in an affluent household and is well-educated. He dreams of becoming a professional boxer however and participates in amateur fights in Mexico. To Mary Anne’s dismay, one day he quits his promising finance industry job to pursue his dreams. He first tries a boxing academy in Los Angeles but is turned down by the son of Apollo’s trainer who admonishes him that only street kids with no other path to success will choose to be boxers. He recklessly challenges all comers in the ring, putting up his Ford Mustang as stakes and is soundly beaten by heavyweight champion Danny Wheeler. Next he travels to Philadelphia, visiting Rocky Balboa’s Italian restaurant to see the now aged champion. Rocky refuses to train him as well but relents due to his persistence. A fight is arranged with a local boxer and Adonis insists on fighting under his own name to get out from the shadow of his father’s legacy. He also befriends Bianca, a singer with progressive hearing loss.

This is fairly standard as sports film go though it being specifically about the old champion passing the torch to the newcomer gives it a fresh coat of paint. I liked that it depicts Adonis as a rich boy and everyone he meets immediately pegs him as one. He fights as a boxer because he feels a calling and perhaps has a talent for it, not because he needs the money. Unfortunately when asked about his motivations, his only reply is the unsatisfying one that his father was a fighter. It would have added a bit more psychological depth to his character if the film if it had been willing to go deeper into it. But I suppose there’s just no way to make risking serious injury and permanent brain damage sound palatable. I do like that the film plays up Rocky’s frailty, being too weak at this point to even hold the pads for Adonis to punch. His illness is another standard way of drawing mentor and apprentice closer together though it beggars disbelief that so famous a figure as Rocky would have no one else at his bedside while he is dying. The character of Bianca too is underdeveloped even though her insisting on making music while she can still hear can be interpreted as a loose parallel to Adonis’ own aspirations.

In the end, this still is a boxing movie so it’s willing to be only so serious. The fight choreography is fine without being notable in any particular way. There’s nothing special about the requisite training montages either except for the callbacks to the Rocky films. The camera doesn’t shy away from the damage that boxing does to the human body which I think is mixed messaging. Is it supposed to be glorious and praiseworthy to have your eye so busted up that you can’t see out of it and continue fighting anyway? In Adonis’ case, he isn’t even fighting to defend someone or to make a living, making the sacrifice seem more pointless. But then I’m not a boxing fan. I will note that the framing and the music have a very superheroic tone. It makes this retrospectively feel like an audition tape for Coogler’s later work for Marvel.

I wasn’t expecting too much for this and it falls about right in what I thought it would be. It’s enjoyable enough as light entertainment with no major missteps and I can see that it’s setting things up for sequels including keeping all of the supporting characters. I’m just here to watch Coogler’s work though so this first film of the new series is more than enough for me.