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BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Creed II (2018) in Movies

Dec 7, 2018

Creed II (2018)

2018 | Action, Drama, Sport

7.4

(42 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Good Enough

By my count, this is the 8th time that Sylvester Stallone has put on the character of Rocky Balboa. This time it comes after the resurgence of this character (and franchise) with the introduction of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) and a script that allowed Stallone to explore the character in a way that he had not previously been able to - and garnered him a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his efforts.

In CREED II we are back to an above average by-the-numbers boxing picture with Jordan's Adonis Creed character starting the picture on top, losing it all when he loses himself (and stops listening to Rocky) in his success only to go on a journey of redemption (by following Rocky's advice) at the end. This is, in essence, a regurgitation of ROCKY III and I was somewhat bored by it.

That is, until the final bout, then (gosh darnnit) I was drawn right into the melodrama, pomp and pageantry of the fight and was cheering along with the rest of the audience at all the appropriate moments.

In Creed II, Apollo Creed's son battles Ivan Drago's son. For those of you not up on your Rocky history, Drago (Dolph Lundgren, reprising his role) was the boxer that killed Apollo Creed (Adonis' father) in the ring all those years ago.

Jordan is properly cocky, arrogant, stubborn, shell-shocked, morose, repentant and cocky (again) as the script would indicate. Tessa Thompson (as his wife) deserves better material than what she is given as does Stallone, who falls back to "being Rocky" without anything really new here. Surprisingly, Dolph Lundgren does a nice job as the washed-up boxer who's life was "ruined" when he lost to Rocky at the end of Rocky IV (not a spoiler). Finally, Russel Horsnby (as the "I just want to earn money" promoter of the fight) and Phylicia Rashad (as Adonis' mother/Apollo's wife) are both really good in roles that deserved to be much bigger - and more fleshed out - than they were.

My biggest disappointment from this film is the ommision of Director Ryan Coogler. He brought a visceral attitude to the series in the first CREED film and I felt that this spark of energy was just missing throughout this film with Steven Caple, Jr at the helm. It seemed, to me, that this series is quickly devolving into "paycheck" movies for Stallone and that really saddens me.

All-in-all a rather above average "by-the-numbers" boxing flick with a really good fight at the end of the film that is well worth sticking around for.

Letter Grade: B

7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)

Kudos

Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Zeroboxer in Books

Jan 23, 2020

Zeroboxer

Fonda Lee | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry

9.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Zeroboxer is obviously a book farrrr from my range. In fact, it's literally out of bounds. A sports-themed book is the last thing I'll ever read – I'll read contemporary romance any day over that.

But Fonda Lee's book is something different. Something completely different and out of bounds from what I usually read, and I didn't think I would actually enjoy her novel as much as I did. It's about boxing in zero gravity! On the moon! And Mars! Happy dance ensues – I'm a space nut.

Zeroboxer focuses on Carr Luka, a zeroboxer from Earth who is slowly rising the charts in the zeroboxing world and has dreams of becoming the Lowmass Champion of the Universe. But as Carr becomes more famous on Earth for zeroboxing and his career grows, he finds out something that could ruin not only his career, but his life as well.

Lee's debut novel is very fast-paced, which isn't surprising from a book based on boxing out in space. The book mainly focuses on Carr's career as a zeroboxer and how he grows career-wise in the span of two years. Putting all of that in a 350 page made everything – Carr's career, his relationship with his brandhelm – seem to go by a lot faster than it actually would. In all honesty, it's been a long time since I've last read a book that has a span of more than a year in one book instead of several.

The world Lee builds is an entirely different world and it takes a while to get used to all of the slang and abbreviations that are used throughout the book. It's clear from early on that Zeroboxer is set really far away in the future – Earth isn't exactly a dominant planet anymore compared to those who found a home on Mars and the moon, and some of the places have definitely changed (New Shanghai, Asialantis, etc). The technological advances were really interesting and I would love to see an actual version of how the colonies on the moon and Mars really look like as civilizations with cities, towns, etc. Oh, and I would actually like to see a zeroboxing match one day.

Zeroboxer may be completely out of bounds from what I'm usually drawn to, but I highly enjoyed the entire journey. It's fast-paced and something different. I might feel a little biased here, but I can't ask for anything more from a debut novelist.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-zeroboxer-by-fonda-lee/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>