Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Andre Ward, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster, Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran, Graham McTavish, Malik Bazille, Ricardo McGill, Gabe Rosado, Wood Harris, Buddy Osborn, Rupal Pujara.
Hollywood and sport doesn’t exactly mix, football, golf, rugby, ice hockey, all end up being seen as a pale imitation of what can happen on the field of play and the reason it mostly comes down to is the ability to replicate the dramatic vision of the spectacle is almost non-existent. The film revels too much in the prowess of the team event to be carried off in spectacular fashion, it looks clumsy and forced, the poetry of the game stunted and fluffed out, it is overdone and over produced.
Where Hollywood gets it right however is in the field of Boxing, for some a noble art, for others the last vestiges of combative brutality, one in which the ego is pumped full of adrenaline and in too which cinema can really capture the emotions because it doesn’t have to add extra spice to the direction of the film.
Following on from any successful franchise is a job of sheer intensity, the characters, perhaps faded into the background of cinema history, are always going to be loved and cared for. Yet somehow Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington have made Creed a film into which you cannot help but feel drawn and whilst the brutality of the sport will leave some cold, the film is not about that, it is the relationship between the father figure and the child aiming to prove that they are worth something, that they are worthy not only of the name they possess but also of the respect and love of the man they have looked up to.
For Sylvester Stallone this film must rank highly on his credit list, a picture in which he is taken to more extremes than getting in the ring in the Rocky franchise, for the viewer is giving the glimpse of the inevitable, that the person’s biggest opponent is not the man beating him in the ring, bloodying his sight and bruising his body, nor is it the combatant himself, it is Time and Time is merciless when it has enough of you.
Creed will leave you breathless, a film of integrity and splendour, quite exhilarating.
Ian D. Hall