Director Ryan Coogler
Staring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson
Rated M
Score 3.5/6

The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.

For those of you keeping track this is the seventh movie in the Rocky Franchise and second Rocky movie to be released in nine years.
It should be noted that this was director Ryan Coogler’s second feature. Coogler is rumoured to be attached to direct the upcoming Black Panther movie. For those of you who might be interested this is the second time that Michael B. Jordan has worked with director Ryan Cooger, they have previously worked together on Coogler’s first feature Fruitvale Station.
Creed has that curiosity and goodwill factor that you would expect from any movie franchise that is nearly forty years old. Now even with all of this going for Creed I can’t help but think that this is movie that should have been made back in 2006 instead of the offering that was directed by Sylvester Stallone.
Jordan gave a decent enough performance and you really shouldn’t find yourself hating him as the son of Apollo Creed. After watching Creed I really have to question if Coogler was the right man to be put in the director’s chair. Now considering that this a pretty well established franchise a degree in rocket science is not a prerequisite for the director or the writer responsible for a Rocky movie though if there is going to be a future for the franchise future directors might need to reshape the formula. However what is needed, especially from the director is the ability to subtlety manipulate our emotions in those key moments of the movie. Coogler tried and maybe if he had a couple of extra movies under his belt before directing Creed he would have succeeded brilliantly. This was especially clear with the tipping point of the final fight when he took a route that came off as being a little too artistic for my tastes.