Creed II

2018 sequel to a spin-off with a lot of sequels...that, or it's the 18th film in a boxing movie franchise

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Creed, following the events of the last movie, becomes the champion. That puts him on the radar of an old Rocky foe who still holds a grudge and who happens to have a son who punches other guys really really hard. Cue the montage scene music!

Why did we just completely skip over Mr. T's son in these?

This starts out fine, cool theme music during a pre-title-screen fight. Actually, we get a pair of matches before the title appears triumphantly on the screen. Soon after, Rocky gives the advice, "Why don't you just turn off your brain?" and although he wasn't talking directly to the audience, he might have been talking directly to the audience. It's not that this is dumb. At least, it's not nearly as dumb as the Rocky movie with Ivan Drago or most of the other Rocky movies. It's more to do with how predictable the whole thing is. It's the kind of predictability that goes down easy, character development and back-and-forth in-the-ring action that crowd-pleases. It's the type of movie where it seems like you're actually writing the movie as you're watching.

Themes are slathered on. This has things to say about fathers with a trio of father/son relationships. It also throws in themes about legacy, the choices we make, why human beings fight, and what's valuable. Stallone delivers a metaphor about a light ("What goods a light that don't light? Adrian!") like it's an uppercut to the jaw. I'm actually shocked he didn't look directly in the camera and tell us viewers that we're supposed to connect that light to boxers having things broken in them after certain fights that can't be fixed.

I really like Michael B. Jordan, and I'm not just talking about the plethora of scenes that show him doing various things without a shirt.