Tag: Adonis Creed

Is it glory, pride, joy? Driven to excel, Adonis puts himself through the ringer, bloodying his body and sullying his psyche—and for what? Right after Adonis wins the heavyweight title, a Russian boxer named Viktor Drago challenges him to a fight. Viktor’s father, Ivan Drago, killed Adonis’s father, Apollo Creed—Rocky’s arch-rival in the “Rocky” movies of the 1970s and ’80s—in the ring in 1985’s “Rocky IV.” “It all feels so Shakespearean,” says a boxing commentator. Fights are about narrative-building, says Buddy Marcelle, a promoter who amps up the tension with his public appearances and media baiting. But “Creed II” is less about petty grievances than doing right by your forebears. The sounds are sharp and crunchy, the lights bright and harsh. In the crowd, a lady in glasses aims her phone at the ring to take a video. Throughout the film, he says he accepted the challenge “because it was my fight.” Later, he visits his father’s grave with his new baby daughter. And how it takes your breath away to see that transfiguration take place, the dissolution of darkness into bright light.