Creed II: Sylvester Stallone's retirement path continues to delight

Creed II (M, 130 minutes) Directed by Steven Caple Jr ★★★ ½

It is not a bad thing to be surprised by preconceived ideas. And that Rocky/Creed The late flop made me a muppet – not once or twice, but three times now.

When Rocky VI Released in 2006, me, you and the rest of the movie fan group, we all assumed it would be a parody of a thing, meant to fail on screen and a report for every Golden Raspberry of the season. A plot around Rocky Balboa by Sylvester Stallone, who was coming out of retirement to face an impetuous young champion, sounded like the vanity project to eliminate them all.

So color me surprise and delighted when the film closed the series with more dignity, heart and manaakitanga than anyone could reasonably have expected. Plus, every movie reviewer in the world could claim that we were the first to call it "the aging bull". So, there is that.

And then again in 2016, when the filmmaker Ryan Coogler (who would then head Black Panther) had the idea of ​​the son of the deceased champion – Apollo Creed (see Rocky IV) as a young fighter, approaching Balboa to be his coach. Creed It should not have been so effective, but Coogler, his star Michael B Jordan and a terribly tired Stallone and soul, chased him out of the park. Creed It's one of my favorite movies on long-haul flights, and it always makes me look dusty.

So now this. The result is probably inevitable. Surely now, there must be a fall in Stallone's twilit career?

But no. Creed II, against all odds, is really not too bad at all.

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The film picks up where Creed leave behind. Adonis – Donnie – Creed is a new heavyweight champion, still haunted by the memory of his father and a dose of impostor syndrome that plays with such authenticity.

Bianca's wife wants to leave Philadelphia and settle in LA, but Creed wants to stay close to her aging mentor, Balboa. In Balboa's past, the specter of Ivan Draco (Dolph Lundgren), the man who beat Apollo Creed in the ring in 1985, with a new challenger for the belt. Draco's own son, Victor, is a bull of man, with exactly the kind of grimace and tear on the shoulder, I guess you never want to see the guy in the other corner of the ring.

Creed II it's really not much more than a remake of Rocky IV, complete with a self-homage to the training montage of this very ridiculous and parodied film.

But the new director Steven Caple Jr (Emmett Till) makes the film simmer between fights and its casting is always fantastic.

Michael B Jordan is pretty much the most watchable actor right now and Tessa Thompson (sorry to disturb you) is perfectly molded like Bianca. Wood Harris (he was Avon Barksdale in Thread) find good times as a combat coach and cornerman.

Stallone said it would be his last appearance under the name of Balboa and I hope that is true. But I am more grateful that I would never have imagined in 2006 that this last quasi-trilogy of exits exists.