Creed II
I’m a little late getting to this movie so if you’ve seen it before, great, you don’t have to worry about spoilers. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want spoilers, this is your warning, LOL.
No matter what movie it is, I have to acknowledge just how fine Michael B. Jordan is in all of them. He never lets me down; such a beautiful man to look at… although, I feel he’s always wearing skinny jean type pants and I’m not sure how I feel about that, LOL.
Adonis Creed is the son of the famous boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies (for anybody who doesn’t know and needs a little background). On the road to prove himself as amazing as the father he never got to know (and in my opinion, to find some type of acceptance due to that reality), Adonis, proved himself in Creed with Rocky as his trainer. This time around Rocky isn’t around to help due to who the new opponent is, Viktor Drago, the son of the man that killed Apollo in the ring before he was born. Adonis has an obsession with avenging his fathers death which turns out to be a desire to feel like he’s enough as Adonis and not just as Apollo’s son. I wish Adonis would have listened to Rocky and not taken the fight the first time around because it was so painful to watch. Poor little Michael B… face was jacked up, LOL, make-up really outdid themselves with that.
The movie was definitely a good watch and I’d recommend it to anybody looking for a sequel that is a great contender with its origin story. The parallel of Adonis to Apollo is a great build up to executing his desire to exceed the limits that were placed on his father. He’s in the exact position Apollo was in when he lost to Drago; expecting a baby, building a life with an amazing black woman, at what looks like the top of his career, and he has a possibly fatal battle awaiting him at the end of the film. Of course he has to win, because plot lines and main characters, but I appreciated the mental struggle he went through after fighting Viktor at the beginning of the movie to get him to the fight of his life at the end.
It’s enlightening to see a black man painted in a light of struggle that isn’t negative, because life is filled with ups and downs. There’s so much negativity out n the world that it’s nice to see another black man painted in a negative light because of the struggles he endures as a black man. He’s fighting for what’s important and in the midst of fighting for those you love as well as yourself you can fall into lonely places. Amazing depiction of what an individual has to do to get themselves out of that space. Phylicia Rashad’s conversation with Bianca (Tessa Thompson) about how to help Adonis by letting him help himself touched my heart somewhere deep inside. As black women we always want to “fix” the problem, but we can’t… it’s not for us to fix when it’s not our battle.
Tessa Thompson does her thing in the movie, by the way; love her! The depiction of black love in the movie is so DOPE and I’m glad we get to experience an amazing black relationship go through a hard time. Why is that a great thing to experience? Because love is always over dramatized in movies and looks “perfect” when that’s not how love is, and they came out on the other side of their struggle stronger than ever. Their baby was so cute, too! Talk about stirring up my baby fever, LOL, and home-girl can SING! Put me on to her many talents as a singer/songwriter, because I had no idea.
Creed II is a great metaphorical depiction of struggles we experience as black people and how we can effectively overcome them: absent father (absent not deadbeat), black love, insecurity, and persistence. There’s no one more resilient in this world than a black man with something to fight for, that’s just my opinion though.
DOPE movie! Go check it out if you haven’t already!
Release Date: November 21, 2018
Where I watched: Amazon Firestick