Creed II: Rocky's Legacy: The last punch is missing in round two
Creed vs. Drago, the US vs. the Soviet Union, Good Against Evil: In 1985, there was already this momentous fight in "Rocky IV". With tragic, because deadly consequences for the "King of Sting". The USSR is now history, the rest is provided in "Creed II: Rocky's Legacy" (from 24 Janaur) thanks to the duel of the two sons of Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. What could dramatically go wrong?
History repeats itself
Three years after his close defeat of "Pretty" Ricky Conlan, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has come out on top. As heavyweight world champion and with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) at his side, he gains worldwide fame - a fact only two men have been waiting for. Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) has formed in the desolation of a Ukrainian prefabricated housing estate from his son Viktor (the German Florian Munteanu) a wrecking pear in human form.
Revenge is Drago's only motivation. Because after the defeat against Balboa more than 30 years ago, the reputation of the "Siberian Express" was gone - as well as his wife Ludmilla (ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Nielsen), who has no room for losers in her icy heart. Nor is it for her only son. And so the hateful father-son team sets out to wipe the second creed off the surface as well. In turn, he himself is extremely eager for the fight, because he, too - to the dismay of his mentor Rocky - thinks only of retaliation.
The fight of the new century
So the sons are fighting for the long-lost honor of their fathers. The premise of "Creed II" is auspicious, as is the beginning of the film. Fans of the series should run a Siberian-cold shiver when Ivan and Rocky are sitting in his restaurant, two relics of another time. Once their fight was a Cold War proxy, they are now represented in the ring.
But this great starting position also ensures that people go to the cinema with very high, too high expectations. The drama surrounding main character Adonis unfolds in a problematic direction, whiny and unsympathetic he acts over long stretches of the film. Just to get the even more unavoidable lesson before the inevitable training montage: Uncle Rocky just knows it best. Memories of the modest fifth part of the "Rocky" saga come to life, in which Stallone once had to serve as a contrite Mentor figure.
I only have something in mind
To stay in the box jargon: "Creed" was still an emotional impact effect. The once invincible Rocky, scarred by cancer, barely made its way up the famous steps at the entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art at Philadelphia. His steps. The "Rocky Steps". There were inevitably many (sometimes very male) tears shed in the cinema. And that was good. For the "Rocky" series has always been and despite the immense excess of testosterone just for drama on the other side of the ring ropes.
"Creed II" honestly tries to build on it. Where his predecessor off the boxing ring was soulful, part two tends to sentimentalism. To top it off, Rocky's lonely fight against his own body was not any more, but it's still being tried with all his might. Instead of being able to get involved in it, most viewers are instead only waiting for the final fist-barrage for glory and atonement.
But although Munteanu is a bear of a man and Jordan has pumped up even more, the same brilliant punch of the first "Creed" does not want to fall in the ring any more. At that time, director Ryan Coogler had set impressively, his successor Steven Caple Jr. loses clearly on points.
The better the bad guy ...
The biggest omission of "Creed II" can be found in the other corner of the ring. The direction statement on Lundgren was apparently to pull down the corners of the mouth in each scene like a over-committed Merkel imitator. Here, the strip gives away as much of the potential that the Dragos and their deep fall would have provided. Much more than on "Creed III", the film therefore makes you want a "Drago I" to counteract this deficit.
Doubly a pity, because all parties are clearly in the mood to note. The German-Romanian heavyweight boxer Munteanu delivers a taciturn but interesting debut. Lundgren has been waiting for his Drago comeback since the mid-80s and of course Stallone himself, although increasingly in the background, sprayed with enthusiasm. The only opportunity is none of them.
Conclusion:
The outstanding starting position, which was created by the "Rocky" series in general and "Creed" in particular, conditionally meets "Creed II". Delivering the high level of its predecessor in and out of the ring was an impossible task anyway. A knockout strike is not round two of "Rocky's Legacy", but it should not go down in the annals either.
