Creed Review

Creed

"A great fighter once said: 'It ain't about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward'"  -Adonis quoting Rocky Balboa

  The dramatic sport film Creed is directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) and stars Micahel B. Jordan as Adonis Johnson Creed, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, Tessa Thompson as Bianca, Tony Bellew as 'Pretty' Ricky Conlan, and Phylicia Rashad as Mary Anne Creed.

^Get ready to get pumped up!^

  In Creed, Adonis Johnson had struggled with life and his emotions resulting in him going in and out of a juvenile detention center, until one day a woman takes him into her home. It turns out that she is Mary Anne Creed, wife of the deceased world championship boxer Apollo Creed. Adonis is the illegitimate child of Apollo Creed when he had an affair with a woman. Adonis grows up with a good home and a good mother in Los Angeles. He still, however, has an affinity for fighting and goes to underground boxing rings to fight for money. He eventually, against his mom's wishes, has enough of his boring regular job and quits because he goes to Philadelphia to see Apollo Creed's old friend and ex-boxer Rocky Balboa. To make a legacy out of his own name, Adonis hides his name under his original last name Johnson. After his first fight, word gets out that he is Apollo Creed's son and the #1 pound-by-pound boxer in the world, 'Pretty' Ricky Conlan, challenges him to a fight to be viewed around the world. He accepts, but is nervous. With many inspirational moments from the people around him and especially Rocky himself, Adonis goes into the ring making an epic fight with Conlan.

 ^That's real fighting. Michael B. Jordan actually got hit pretty hard. Wow.^

  When I saw the first trailer for Creed, I was so pumped to know that I would get to see Rocky again. Not only that, but I would get to see Apollo Creed's son fight. So after some time, I got worried that Creed would bomb and not live up to the hype and to the name of the Rocky franchise. I was so relieved and totally ecstatic after the film to know that Creed was a fantastic film. It wasn't just a great add-on to the Rocky franchise, but it was a great overall film.

 ^Yeah Adonis! Pound those haters into the ground!^

  I mentioned that Michael B. Jordan really did learn how to box and did so in the film. Those moments of intense boxing, and another aspect that I'll go into in a bit, really made the film for me. The first professional fight that Adonis is a part of was filmed in what looked like one long tracking shot, which were used in abundance throughout the first half of the film. It was absolutely beautiful. The hits felt real. The blood looked real. The fierceness seemed real. I loved this fight. Although there would be another at the end, Adonis' first fight was the most immersive. This is not a flaw with the end fight, but in terms of which was better, the first one was and I wish it was the other way around.

 ^When you watch this scene, pay attention to the faces of both Adonis and his opponent. They're getting hit hard.^

  Now into my favorite ingredient that made Creed spectacular: Sylvester Stallone. Oh my goodness. I honestly didn't expect a performance like the one he gave. Stallone showed that he still has the acting chops that he once had in his earlier days. The emotional points in the film were almost all directed towards him. There was one moment where Stallone's Rocky Balboa was sitting in a chair in front of two tombstones (Paulie's and Adrian's). He was casually talking to them about how things are going. It was clear that he'd been going to the tombstones for a while since he said to them while pulling out a newspaper, "Let's see whats going on in the world today." Although this may not seem like an emotional and heartwrenching moment (probably because of the way I'm describing it), these two people laying in the ground were very close and important to Rocky. To be honest, seeing him casually talk to them as if they were still alive got me to cry a little. 

 ^Damn Rocky. Through ups and downs, you're still a trooper. An admirable character in all of cinema.^

  Still, even with Stallone's performance, Creed felt a little cheesy at moments. I understand that this is supposed to be an inspirational film and it's supposed to pump you up, but there were parts where I said to myself, "Oh. Yeah. That's kind of clichéd." There was a scene during the middle of the film that had Rocky being more prominent to Adonis' strive towards success. The reason for the importance to Adonis was a little unnecessary. This could've been done this on other ways where this maybe didn't impact Rocky's life permanently (and perhaps the future of the franchise?). Then again, I feel I'm nitpicking too much.   

 ^Yeah! Go Team Creed!^

   I'm on the fence of this being a complete Rocky rehash or not because Creed is, in many ways, a rehash of the first movie in the franchise, but it also stands out as being one of the best in the franchise. It is a great film overall and there's no denying that, but I can't stop comparing many of the original dynamics in story to Creed. It's not original. It is, however, fantastic. One of the influences from the original Rocky that is clearly seen and felt in Creed is the electrifying journey that Adonis goes through. It is inspiring and most definitely epic. The musical score and the inspirational lines absolutely helped bring me to my maximum energized level.

 ^"You see this guy here? That's the toughest opponent you're ever going to have to face. I believe that's true in the ring and I believe that's true in life."^

  Creed sticks out in recent sports films as being a magnificent welcome home present from possibly the greatest sports film franchise of all time. The little lack in creativity that Creed had was totally made up for with execution. I had a blast with this film. I might just take up boxing lessons now.

Pro

• The fights!
• Sylvester Stallone's emotional performance was shockingly great
• Inspirational (it's the eye of the tiger...)
• Score was epic

Con

• Rehashing of old storylines
• Sometimes cheesy 

4.6/5

Creed is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and some sensuality

Watch the trailer here 

Creed is in theaters everywhere now

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Review

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

 "Our lives were never ours, they belong to Snow and our deaths do too. But if you kill him, Katniss, all those deaths, they mean something."  -Peeta Mellark

  The new Sci-Fi young adult novel adaptation The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1) and stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Donald Sutherland as President Snow, Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, and the late and great Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee.

^There must've been tears on every cast member's face when filming the last scene of this movie^

  The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is the last installment in the whole Hunger Games franchise (and a mouthful to say out loud). It picks up where Mockingjay - Part 1 left off. Katniss recovers from almost getting murdered by Peeta who was brainwashed by the Capitol. Katniss is shaken up by that and by the events that happened in Mockingjay - Part 1, but she still goes on with the Rebellion and in attempts to film a propaganda movie about the refugees of the Capitol, she gets shot. Luckily she is wearing a bulletproof vest. During Katniss' recovery from the shot (Katniss is very accident prone just like Jennifer Lawrence in real life), she sees and listens to Peeta (now in treatment) blame her for all his suffering. Her depression then turns into anger and wanting vengeance. She decides that it's time to assassinate President Snow (the leader of the Capitol who is responsible for deaths a plenty and Katniss' grief). President Coin (leader of the Rebellion) declines Katniss' wish to kill Snow, therefore making Katniss to take matters into her own hand. She sneaks on an aircraft leaving towards District 2 (the district right next to the Capitol) and is assigned to a team consisting of Gale, Finnick, Cressida, Boggs, and Peeta (who unexpectedly joins). The team's mission is to infiltrate the Capitol ahead of the Rebellion, which is Katniss' perfect opportunity to kill Snow. The Capitol is filled with booby traps and Peacekeepers trying to destroy Katniss and the rest of her team.
However, Katniss' lust for revenge doesn't come without a price. People die. People Katniss knows and loves die. Katniss makes difficult decisions based on morality and what's right. Two things that, in Katniss' case, conflict a lot.

^Katniss is just dead in those eyes^

  Now that the Hunger Games franchise is over, I'm just going to say that this has been my favorite YA (young adult) franchise just behind the Harry Potter franchise. It's amazing how many followers The Hunger Games has gained since the first movie came out in 2012. But I digress, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is definitely on par with Catching Fire (my favorite Hunger Games film). I thought that Mockingjay - Part 2 really tied Katniss' story and all other plot points well in a neat little bow. Jennifer Lawrence has to get big props because if this were another actress, I honestly feel like The Hunger Games franchise would not live up to what it is now. The start of this franchise was really the first film where Jennifer got recognized by a wide audience. So it's been a mutual relationship. Now that I've seen The Hunger Games at it's conclusion, I feel happy for Katniss, but I also feel very sad that her journey came to an end, a happy yet kind of tragic end.

 ^We've grown with you, Katniss. We've experienced the good and the bad with you. We love you^

  Mockingjay - Part 2 is no doubt a sad movie. Very sad. As an estimate, I would probably say that there were over 50 on screen deaths (NOT a confirmed number) and a handful of those people were characters that we have grown with or just like them even if we just saw them for a little bit. There is one scene where someone Katniss very close to Katniss dies (the readers of the books will know what I'm talking about) in the midst of a huge massacre of children. This scene was so heartbreaking not only because of the important death, but because you think to yourself, "why would anybody bomb a bunch of children trying to run to safety?" It's such a depressing thought, but I feel like it's necessary in order to show how corrupt these two factions (Rebellion and Capitol) are. It just seems like there will won't be any hope for Katniss or anybody for that matter.

  ^I'll show a car in the same scene blowing up instead of the kids, you sickos^

   The downer to Mockingjay - Part 2 is the pacing of the story. I enjoyed the story and much of the dialogue, but the movie didn't flow too well. It was kind of all over the place. For the majority of the film, it was really slow and just kind of explaining the events that we just saw a second ago. It felt as though the movie was feeding the audience a second plate of the main course even though we're full. I'm not exactly how this was in the book though (which I didn't read because I didn't want to have any prejudgements). I'm not going to lie, a lot of the dialogue between Katniss and the other characters was excellent. However, the action scenes really overshadowed the conversations. I thought the scenes where there were explosions or fighting between characters were really cool and well choreographed, there just weren't that many of them.

^And then right after this, they talk about how the Capitol put booby traps everywhere to try and kill them...^

  Then there's the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale. Unlike a lot of other films where there are love triangles and you just don't buy into their connections, Mockingjay - Part 2 provides well drawn out emotions between the three characters. In spite of the believable love, the scenes that were put in to pull apart the layers of each character were kind of shoehorned in. At some point between intense action sequences, Katniss, Peeta, or Gale would say something to anger or please the other. Then there wouldn't really be any talk about it until after the next action scene.

^Katniss and Peeta or Katniss and Gale?^

  The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is a very fitting closure to Katniss' traumatic and action-packed journey. The film itself was not very fluid in terms of showing instead of telling, but the parts that they did show were captivating and enjoyable. I will say that the Hunger Games world is very bleak and I would not want to live there at all, but Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen really made these four movies a delight to watch.

Pro

• Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen
• Cool and well constructed action scenes
• Immersion of the depression and hopeless world
• Satisfying end to franchise
• Love triangle was actually pretty interesting

Con

• Pacing is all over the place
• Explanations of what we just saw

 

4.3/5

 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for some thematic material

Watch the trailer here 

 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is in theaters everywhere now

 

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