Creed II

Creed II follows on directly from Creed, however this time Adonis is at the pinnacle of the boxing world and troublingly bathing in the lavish luxuries which that affords. Simultaneously on the other side of the world Viktor Drago is being trained by his father Ivan in much more austere surroundings. It is this dichotomy along with the tragically intertwined histories of the families which drives the film’s conflict and confrontations.

Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson once again give a great performance, which pulls at all of the heartstrings thus giving the film an emotional weight. Aside from these two emotional performances though Creed II is a shallow film, which fails to flesh out the Dragos or anybody orbiting around the Creeds.

The fight scenes and training montages are as great as ever, although occasionally somewhat predictable and over the top, but that alone is not enough to score the KO.

Creed II fails to live up to the hype of its predecessor by unfortunately resorting to decades old formula and callbacks. For a film which is centred around escaping the shadows of the past this film fails to land a decisive blow of its own.

★★★

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