Without director Ryan Coogler at the helm, this Rocky spinoff lacks the precision punch of its predecessor. In this instalment, Michael B Jordan’s Adonis Creed (and an Adonis he is) must defend his title as heavyweight champion of the world, but additional pressure is applied when his challenger is revealed to be Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu). “Big, fast, strong, unorthodox”, he’s also the son of Ivan, the fighter who killed Creed’s father, Apollo, in the ring circa 1985’s Rocky IV.
He and fiancee, Bianca (Tessa Thompson, doing her best with an underwritten role) have a baby on the way, which seems less about raising the stakes and more like an excuse to show how Jordan’s hulking biceps seem to have been sculpted specifically for the purposes of cradling a small child.
Arms aside, Jordan is the best thing about the film; vulnerable mouth and defiant, boyish attitude voice (“I’m dangerous!” he insists, voice cracking) telegraphing insecurity and impostor syndrome that feels lived in. The fight scenes are fabulously kinetic and there’s a desert-set training sequence that split my face into an enormous grin, but at two hours, it’s a little flabby in the middle.
