From an outside perspective the Rocky franchise is a laugh and a joke mostly made through the generations of parodies and people who've only seen said parodies. Those who give it a chance can be pleasantly surprised to find a golden piece of cinema that is a testament to the human spirit found both onscreen with the characters and the creator, Sylvester Stallone's own personal struggles. Each movie not only evolves the characters but evolves the struggles we each as people face every day. This being the seventh film in the franchise and the first not written by Stallone and not centralized on the character of Rocky Balboa, for fans and onlookers is a hard pill to swallow. Why should fans care if it's not about Rocky? Why should non fans care about the seventh film in a franchise? The film itself faces the same criticisms and challenges that are thematic throughout. As Michael B Jordan's Adonis Creed must step out of the shadow of his father Apollo Creed, so too must the film Creed transcend the shadow of Rocky. It is the perfect thematic companion piece. Those who care about these characters will weep, laugh and love where the characters are and newcomers will be moved by how well the story is told. Rocky was going the distance, Creed goes the distance to make its own path.
The film begins with a young man fighting another boy in a correctional facility. A woman walks in to meet this young boy who has been dubbed a fighter. Upon meeting him she reveals he is the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed the once great heavyweight champion of the world. She is Apollo's wife, Mary Anne and she is there to take him home and raise him. Years pass as we see young Adonis battling it out in rings in Mexico on the weekends and riding a desk job unhappily on the week days. He quits and moves to Philadelphia to find the legendary Rocky Balboa and train in Mighty Mick's gym which produced the Italian Stallion. After much back and forth between the two, Rocky finally agrees to train him. Adonis goes by his biological mother's name, Johnson, so as to not attract attention and make it professionally based on his talent and not who his father was. Of course eventually his birth name leaks and he is haunted by the name of Creed. The current boxing champion, Pretty Ricky Conlan needs one last high stakes match to retire on as he has completely destroyed his career. Reminiscent of the original Rocky, Conlan's trainer sees the two fighting as a huge PR opportunity and a way to make money off of the Creed name. Rocky must train Adonis, "Don" to peak condition in order to fight Conlan but must also teach Don to be his own man and escape his father's shadow.
In the first chilling moments of Don's origins you do really feel for him and the pain and anger he's going through. Then Mary Anne Creed takes him in and loves him and gives him everything he could want. It's this moment where you see Don walk both the richest and poorest paths of life but respectively keeping the mentality of the hard working man. He has a cushy high paying job and lives in a mansion with his surrogate mother but throws it all away to chase a dream. The pursuit of happiness. He willingly lives in squalor in Philadelphia to get a glimpse of where he came from by training with Rocky. Michael B Jordan emotes this character so perfectly. His emotional transitions are flawless and each emotion bleeds out of the screen and into the viewer. The internal struggle that we see Don go through is perfectly seen through Jordan's body language in the fights. It's hard to focus, he's constantly in and out of his own head trying to escape the Creed name yet fascinated by it. He constantly hurts himself through this struggle and it takes Rocky and the first glimpse of true love to prove that his worth is weighed in his deeds and not his name. In one of my favorite scenes Rocky has Don face to face with a mirror punching and jabbing, saying that the person staring back at him is his own worst enemy. It's a lesson that is applicable to us all. 
Stallone returning as Rocky in this film is a wonderful welcome back to an old friend. Rocky Balboa, the sixth film in the franchise proved that Stallone still had it, could still make us cry and taught us that no matter the age you could always go the distance. He finished his fight. To see him fight again would not be right. That's why it takes so much for Don to convince him to train him. Rocky has had a good life, but it's very late in his life now. He's lost all his friends and his beloved Adrian that saw him through everything. There's nothing more for him. It's a very dark turn for the character in this film. Don and Rocky need each other though. They train each other in more ways than one. Rocky fights for Don and Don fights for Rocky. Without giving too much away their relationship is beautiful. Rocky is the father Don never had and Don is Rocky's reason to live. It's a stellar performance as always and I feel this is the last time we will see this character as it is a perfect close to his story down to the last heart wrenchingly beautiful frame of the film. 
A true love falling unexpectedly into Don's already complicated life as he falls unexpectedly into her equally complicated life. Tessa Thompson's Bianca adds another amazing thematic layer to the film as not only the love of Don's life, but a lesson in chasing your dreams. She is Don's neighbor who plays obnoxiously loud music that keeps him awake at night. He begs her to turn the music down but she declines. One night while running around town he sees her singing in a band in a club. He later confronts her again wanting to get a meal with her. She accepts and over dinner they reveal their passions to one another. Hers of course is music. Sadly though she has a hearing problem that gets increasingly worse each passing year that will inevitably make her deaf. Her only wish is to share her love for music with the world before the sounds of her life are silenced to her forever. This moment is a revelation to Don and I believe it to be one of the huge turning points in the movie for him. Live your dream before it's gone. Don't give up until you've completed what you set out to do. Again something we can all live by.
This is the first film in the series to not be written by Stallone. Ryan Coogler takes the reigns on both writing and directing. The script obviously from my praise of the characters and themes is genius. The directing is quite brilliantly done as well. The film consists of so many long and well blocked shots with very few cuts. Coogler knew what he wanted each character doing and when. Perfectly timed so many moments to be shot without any cuts. This really builds the momentum and intenseness of many of the scenes of internal turmoil and makes for amazing fight sequences. He sprinkles so many homages throughout and makes them pivotal moments in the film. Apollo Creed's signature red, white and blue pants are donned in the final fight by Don, branded with both the names Creed and Johnson, representing both his parents. The fight itself between Creed and Conlan is one of the most intense fights ever. Conlan is reminiscent of the nastiness of Clubber Lang from Rocky III. There is so much blood and pure rage and anger in that fight. At one point in particular the lighting goes down and only hits Conlan and Creed as they are centered in the shot and the sound dims other than their punches. In that moment they are the only two there in that arena and they are fighting on another level. 
This film is an excellent entry into the franchise and an astounding piece of cinema on its own. Those who doubt Stallone or Jordan's acting prowess will be moved to tears by their combined efforts and Coogler's amazing script and directing skills. Regardless of whether you are a fan of the franchise or of sports films what you take away from this is so much more than that. You take away life lessons. Each film gave us at least one life lesson. This film gives us several. Creed indeed stands on it's own out of the Shadow of Rocky just as Don stands out of the shadow of Apollo. Five rounds out of five to Creed for going the distance.
