it's a quality sequel that manages to tell it's story from multiple character perspectives without losing focus, Rocky, Adonis, Bianca, Ivan and Viktor all have an arc in the movie and each one is well acted and written, with satisfying pay-offs all round.
Adonis is a complex character, at times he's so petulant with a chip on both shoulders, and deserves a smack from Rocky and Bianaca at different moments in the movie, but MBJ inbues him with such a raw emotional core and charisma that you root for him as he deals with the father issues that still shadow him, perhaps finally laying them to rest in this movie. His relkationships with Rocky and Bianca are the films heartbeat as with the first film, and are pretty much as strong, although I felt we got more of his dynamic with Rocky in the first film.
Stallone is on top form again as the world weary Rocky, always ready with an unorthodox pearl of wisdom, delivered as only he can. If this is the last one for him I thought the final two scenes were the absolute perfect send-off, he passess the torch fully to Adonis and maybe finds some peace for himself away from Philly, boxing and all the old memories.
It was interesting that Donnie was fighting for the Light Heavyweight title in the first movie, but won the World heavyweight title in this one, and I liked the callback of having him take the title of Wheeler
The Drago's story was really well written IMO, they could have easily been generic bad guys, but Ivan's story of 30 years of pent up bitterness as he became a man without a country had an element of tragedy to it, and Viktor had father issues like Donnie but in a different way, he'd been raised from the ground up to be a fighter and earn his father's way home, a huge responsibility and a cold relationship that weighed on him.
The movies big training sequence was visually awesome but I felt it lacked the musical accompniment of the best Rocky training sequences.
I liked the story structure across the two big fights, Donnie getting hurt in the ribs and fighting without the necessary gameplan for a much bigger opponent, so emotionally worked up he ignores the advice of Duke jr, and I thought the DQ was a smart way to end the first fight as it showed Viktor was also not fighting with his head as he had so much at stake as well.
For the second fight it's similar to how Rocky and Duke approached the fight with Ivan, endurance as that would be key given the body mass difference when they got into the latter rounds, and building "hurting bombs" with those close-up shots as there's no way he'd get a points decision in Russia, while also using his speed as a real advantage. I thought the finish to the fight was great, with Viktor getting up 3 times and Ivan throwing in the towel, putting his son before his country, it was a nice callback to the Appollo/Drago fight and Rocky's choice to not throw the towel in that has haunted him ever since.
I'm sure there'll be a 3rd film given how well this is doing at the box office, but I admit without Rocky I think it would be missing something as that Donnie/Rocky dynamic is so key. There's plenty of character drama set-up, will Donnie have a long title reign? How is Bianca's hearing situation? How have they coped with raising a deaf daughter? I think the hardest thing after Viktor Drago is to find a bigger threat and at least as compelling opponent for Donnie in the ring.
Anyway, while I think Creed was overall a better film, this was a very strong sequel that built well off the first film and hit all the right notes.
8/10
