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Can lightning strike twice?
Its understandable thatCreed IImight be greeted with unfairly huge expectations.
But in some ways, it works better as aRockysequel than it does as aCreedsequel.
We see the swirl of activity around Adonis, the pressure and maybe even the doubt looming over him.
As various announcers helpfully remind us throughout the movie (It all feels so Shakespearean!
They seem distinctly aware that all this glory is fleeting.
The movie also gets at something poignant with its depiction of the solitude of boxing.
Thats one of his better lines, actually.
Most of his other observations are hopelessly stale and overwritten.
The actor actually got an Oscar nomination forCreed, but he had to fight cancer in that one.
Here, he mostly wanders around spouting sentimental cliches, without anything particularly compelling to do.
Creed IIis pretty rough around the edges, in a way that the blisteringly confident and unexpectedly stylizedCreedwas not.
The fight scenes are more functional than anything else, lacking the previous films inventive camerawork.
This time, we linger on photos of the glorious past approximately 823 times.
There are a few too many speeches about legacies and parents and children.
Key moments are telegraphed a bit too heavily.
And it does land some solid punches.
But these scenes work mostly thanks to the work Cooglers earlier film put into defining the characters.
And itll be interesting to see how the legacy ofCreedaffectsCreed IIs reception.
Go in expecting greatness, and youre likely to be disappointed.
Go in expecting aRockysequel, and youll get a surprisingly effective one.
