7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
A story that finds Rocky Balboa acting as a trainer and mentor to the son of his friend and greatest rival, Apollo Creed.
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Andre WardSport | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Ryan Coogler wasn't even born when Sylvester Stallone first brought Rocky Balboa to the
screen, but in Coogler's remarkable Creed, the sophomore writer/director and the aging superstar
lock arms across four decades to remind audiences why Rocky has been a cherished icon since he
first sprinted up the stone steps to Philadelphia's Museum of Art. At the time, Rocky wanted
nothing more than to prove he wasn't "just another bum from the neighborhood" by surviving
twelve rounds in an exhibition boxing match with the world heavyweight champion. Having
accomplished the goal, the underdog boxer kept proving his worth to himself and the world, but
in Creed he faces a different challenge: that of passing the torch to a younger man in whom
Rocky recognizes the same urgent desire to become more than he is. That the young man happens to
be the son of Rocky's former rival and friend, Apollo Creed, only adds to the sense of destiny
knocking.
Creed is pervaded by ghosts, and the spirit of Apollo Creed, who died in the ring in Rocky IV, is
only the most obvious. The ghosts of Rocky's own past surround him, whether in pictures on the
wall at Adrian's Restaurant, in posters of his former self at Mighty Mick's Boxing gym, or even
the bronze statue at the top of the Rocky Steps, where tourists pose for photographs. Coogler
floods the frame with such images, letting them work both as inspiration to the characters and as
a reminder to the audience of the striving spirit that Rocky has represented for generations of
viewers. Even as the erstwhile Italian Stallion battles age and ill health, his own past keeps
calling him back into the fray. Resigned to having been beaten by time (the only contender, as he
says, that is "undefeated"), the old man finds that his skills are still needed, but now in a different
capacity, as a coach and father figure to the young fighter in whom he can see both himself and
the opponent who first prodded the young Rocky to exceed his circumstances. Creed not only continues the Rocky franchise; it reinvents it with an emotional ferocity not seen
since the original film.
Creed was shot digitally (on the Arri Alexa, according to IMDb) by Maryse Alberti, whose major
work has been in documentaries and who created the "found video" look for M. Night
Shyamalan's The Visit. (She also shot Darren
Aronofsky's The Wrestler.) Probably because of
her documentary background, Alberti has resisted the temptation to stylize Creed by tinting the
entire frame with washes of color, which has become an all-too-common practice in
contemporary cinematography. Creed features a widely varying and generally realistic palette
that accommodates both the wintry urban landscape of Philadelphia and the pockets of bright
warmth seen in Bianca's apartment, in the clubs where she performs and also in Rocky's home,
after Adonis moves in and the champ's emotional pilot light is relit. Each of Adonis' four fights
was shot in a different style, with the climactic final fight aping the style of cable TV coverage
and dominated by the red, white and blue of the challenger's trunks, which pay tribute to his
famous father.
Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray features an exceptional image that preserves the Alexa's
clarity and sharpness without any of the harshness that sometimes accompanies digital capture.
The crags and lines in Stallone's face add gravitas to his performance, and they are
complemented by detail of the old walls, worn exteriors and cracked concrete in the Philadelphia
locations. The crisp digital imagery allows Alberti and Coogler to fill locations like Rocky's
restaurant and Mick's Gym with photos and memorabilia invoking Rocky's past, which serve
both as reminders of Creed's immense backstory and as silent witnesses of this latest chapter. In
the fight scenes, blood, sweat and injuries are displayed with painful realism.
The only quibble with Warner's presentation is the continued insistence of the studio's theatrical
division on aiming for a middling video bitrate, regardless of the available space (a practice now
abandoned by the catalog division, following the Warner Archive Collection's example). The
digitally acquired Creed has been mastered at an average bitrate of 24.99 Mbps with what
appears to be a careful job of compression, but about 10 GB remain unused and wasted on the
BD-50.
Creed arrives with a 7.1 soundtrack encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, and the sound mixers have been bold in their use of the surround array. When Adonis is fighting in the ring, Rocky's instructions are a constant presence, frequently off-camera and routed to a rear or side speaker and moving with the camera's perspective. The crowd noises, especially in the climactic bout, help convey the excitement, and the commentary of the sports reporters has been expertly blended into the mix so that it almost sounds like an ongoing dialogue within the fight itself. In Adonis' training scenes, his environment routinely surrounds the listener, whether it's other boxers training nearby or fans on motorcycles accompanying him on a run. The soundtrack has excellent dynamic range, with deep bass extension used sparingly but effectively. Ludwig Göransson, who scored Fruitvale Station for director Coogler, supplied the alternately energetic and emotional score, which chooses just the right moment to invoke Bill Conti's signature Rocky theme. The track is liberally salted with enough pop and hip-hop songs to fill an album, which was released simultaneously with the film. These provide an interesting contrast with Bianca's bluesy numbers, which were also composed by Göransson and co-written and sung by Tessa Thompson.
A sequel to Creed has already been announced, and it's not hard to imagine possibilities for
continuing Adonis' story, but a subsequent chapter will be hard-pressed to replicate Creed's
intensity. Both Rocky and his creator had to be convinced by younger men they had inspired that
they still had work to do. The thrill of those twin discoveries blazes through the screen, fired
even more by the younger men's joy at connecting with their pasts. Highest recommendation.
2018
2015
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2023
Theatrical & Director's Cut | Limited Edition
2006
1979
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10th Anniversary Edition
2004
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Choice Collection
1989