https://youtu.be/pT6Ds-h_Rj0

My nigga's directorial debut. Said he shot the boxing scenes like an anime. Filmed for IMAX.

Majors is huge in this.

Meaning actually lose the belt this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBRar4mxA8

Also because these movies get me so amped up to exercise lol

he's in his feelings for sure....
I'd be too if I wrote it and its leaving me behind
father time spanked his ass and he was hurt....but i didnt once hear him shit on it

https://youtu.be/LPIIMAnMTmc

Michael B. made the emotions hit just as hard as the punches. Despite a story beat bothering me, I really like this movie. We can get into it once Monday hits after opening weekend.

The boxing scenes are dynamic as fuck. You can clearly see the anime influences. Trust me you'll know it when you see it. Can't wait to see how these fights look in IMAX and how Michael B. uses the format.

This also continues Jonathan Majors' run of incredible performances. I really can't wait for Magazine Dreams.

Also, any movie that starts with Dr. Dre's "The Watcher" has me in the bag.

d

"i do more for both our communities than you'll ever know." - Heinz
"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

Hope you enjoy it.

... a bit worried about how the possible revenge angle of the storyline will play out, but glad to hear you liked it

As a boxing fan and a fan of the series, I'll be watching either way

*daps* I've been going harder in my workouts after this movie too.

If I hadn't read it early in the press cycle, but the "Checkmate" "special move" part ended up being pretty cool when they first introduced it and when it came into play in the final fight. I'm glad they didn't do the "lose the first fight then barely win the rematch" thing again.

Lol, hearing "The Watcher" in the beginning was like "Wait, how do I know this? Ohhhhhhhh!"

It was very Rocky 3. Major is the young hungry guy accusing Adonis of going Hollywood and being soft. The loss of Mick and the loss of his mom. Even though moms death hit me much harder, had me and my son crying in the theater.

I enjoy It. I feel like there was some pacing issues. The dream like sequence in the last fight killed the build up a little bit for me. But I really enjoyed it.

>It was very Rocky 3. Major is the young hungry guy accusing
>Adonis of going Hollywood and being soft. The loss of Mick and
>the loss of his mom. Even though moms death hit me much
>harder, had me and my son crying in the theater.

Elements of 3, and also of 5 where Rocky was retired and looking out for Tommy Gunn, who then turned on him. I think that aspect was much better done here though. They did a good job fleshing out Damian’s motivations, and I enjoyed the ending.

>I enjoy It. I feel like there was some pacing issues. The
>dream like sequence in the last fight killed the build up a
>little bit for me. But I really enjoyed it.

They got to plot points in odd and rushed ways.
I liked the Donnie / Dame story line.
In Creed, Donnie at least had ONE fight in the States before receiving opportunity of a lifetime ala Rocky in 1.
I know Donnie is a big promoter and his name holds weight but come on... Champ vs a nobody who just spent almost 2 decades in the joint?

They did A LOT of signing in the film. It's cool that Michael B Jordan learned to sign for the film but that doesn't help his acting.
I thought Michael B Jordan was gonna be a great ACTOR after The Wire and Fruitvale Station. When he comes on the screen in the art gallery in Black Panther, he POPS off the screen. I watched that and thought WOW, here's a new star in the making that's going to be able to open big budget films and also take on meaty acting roles that compete for Oscars. I was wrong, he's a movie star. Jonathan Majors, he's an ACTOR. I've now seen Majors: in the war flick where he's flying planes, as HE WHO REMAINS in Loki, Kang in Ant Man, and this new Creed flick. He is the guy who POPS off the screen and can ACT that's gonna get the meaty roles that contend for Oscars because of a powerful performance.

The montage scene SUCKED. Wasn't hype after it at all. I know didn't use traditional montage music but still, scenes were just boring.

As far as the fights were concerned, I liked all the fighting scenes. They did some creative camera work. I really liked it when they went into the "zone" where all you saw was them fighting in the rounds other than first and last. Stupid little pep talk by Wood Harris before the last round which was also dumb as hell. I know who supposed to win but the KO was weak.

I liked the style choice of Dame's boxing.
Creed is supposed to be this precision puncher that also has power. Dame was a bit like Clubber Lang, just RAW POWER. Dame fought like he was uncaged which was on the nose but I didn't mind that, I actually expected it. He also had a few dirty tricks he pulled out where the ref couldn't see. The arm / shoulder punch to dead that muscle so the first fighter would be weak and not be able to throw his signature punch was tight.

I know the franchise wanted to establish itself on it's own as a world without Rocky, that didn't need Rocky. But what made those films work was the HEART in them.
The best scene in the film was after the fight. That's where the heart was, the little bit the film did have.

So what's next for this franchise? It had the biggest opening numbers for a sports film ever. I can't see the studio heads saying, well thanks for 3 successful films, there's no more money to make! Nah.
I won't spoil what the franchise could move into in the future for those who haven't seen the film yet.

really could see the anime influences (for good and bad) and being a big anime fan maybe that helped me enjoy it more. Wasnt better than the first, but was better than part 2.

Hell of a directorial debut for MBJ. Majors was perfect in his role per usual. Looks like the series will continue, but it feels like a perfect place to end honestly. I absolutely LOVED the sequence of them “fighting their demons” so to speak. That was my favorite part of the trilogy actually. I just wouldn’t have had it eat up so many rounds of the actual fight. I wasn’t quite ready for the 12th round when they announced it lol.

A couple people mentioned this, but even with Adonis’ level of influence in the business, the idea that the champ would agree to fight Damian in his first pro bout is far fetched, to put it lightly. I know they’re mirroring the chance that Rocky was given in the first movie, but he had a shitload of pro fights under his belt, even if they were against bums and his record wasn’t great. That would have been easy to overlook if they gave Damian a few title defenses in between the title win and the Adonis fight to establish his credibility as a champ. Just a montage of him destroying 3 or 4 top contenders is enough imo. Either that or give him a few pro fights before/after being locked up where he is absolutely dominating guys.

At the end of the day, it IS a part of the Rocky series, so you can’t let that stuff bother you TOO much, but there are a couple things in this series (like Adonis’ jump to the Heavyweight division in 2) that could be explained better and it wouldn’t take up much screen time. I love this series though. 2 is the weakest, and it’s still pretty damn good.

>A couple people mentioned this, but even with Adonis’ level
>of influence in the business, the idea that the champ would
>agree to fight Damian in his first pro bout is far fetched, to
>put it lightly. I know they’re mirroring the chance that
>Rocky was given in the first movie, but he had a shitload of
>pro fights under his belt, even if they were against bums and
>his record wasn’t great. That would have been easy to
>overlook if they gave Damian a few title defenses in between
>the title win and the Adonis fight to establish his
>credibility as a champ. Just a montage of him destroying 3 or
>4 top contenders is enough imo. Either that or give him a few
>pro fights before/after being locked up where he is absolutely
>dominating guys.

Nevermind the fact that there was NO due diligence done on Drago's injury. As a promoter, you invite a bunch of fighters to your wife's label party, a random you never seen before in your life injures one of the star fighters, and you don't even get your team to look into it or explore options? The sanctioning body doesn't have any other mandatories or even a ranking system?

Maybe it's just the boxing fan in me, but it felt like initially the Creed series did a great job of staying true to storytelling in the world of Rocky *and* boxing. Gabe Rosado, Andre Ward, and Tony Bellew were great choices, and it made a lot of sense weight wise. Like you alluded to, the second movie, we were kinda forced to overlook the fact that there was probably a 40+ lb weight difference (not to mention Adonis skipping a weight class). This time around, it was kinda like fuck boxing. I thought Jose Benavidez did a good job for what he was given, but IRL he fights between 140-154 and I wasn't sold on him as a heavyweight at all. If only he had a younger brother who was bigge and also a boxer who could've physically sold that role better.......

like others have stated, Dame not fighting ANYONE was a bit much. he could have taken on a few contenders and gone viral, taking on Drago or Chavez, whoever won their bout. (Chavez was also CLEARLY no damn heavyweight.) It could have created a Cobra Kai like "who's REALLY the hero and who's the villain" dichotomy if it had gone that way, with Dame telling his story about how he got knocked, and Adonis looking like he abandoned him, which also would have been a useful way of analyzing the criminal punishment system, where aint no kid or barely adult should do that many years for PULLING a gun in defense of someone, against their abuser. That was the other missed story telling opportunity, the way the system brutalizes kids as orphans and then criminalizes them. kind of an obvious one to miss for some of the names involved in this film.

Hollywood likes its money but I don't know what additional compelling storyline they can make with Adonis in the ring.

Enjoyed it a lot though. Probably need to see the trilogy to figure where I'd rank them. Missed NOTHING without Stallone though. AT ALL.

What a terrible script, none of it makes sense.

and the script and acting was horrible.

They could’ve spent 5 minutes on him destroying some bums at least, to make it a little more plausible.

What else didn’t make sense?

Thats where it gets a pass. The boxing is the best part, its shot so well in those scenes (minus the last fight). The last scene when the crowd is taken out and they are just screaming wasnt executed well IMO. They shouldve used some inner dialogue to workout their abandonment issues/guilt is expressed sothe last scene together in the locker room makes sense. Just grunting and yelling wasn’t enough. Like oh all of a sudden they are cool because one guy is sad was lazy lol

It definitely was missing Rocky as the voice of reason and the father figure. Ed Harris was in that position but its not the same not even remotely close.

Man I tuned out mostly after about 1/3 of it, I watched but damn it was a struggle.