Creed carefully fuses nostalgia with renovation. Its narrative follows predictable tropes (with a shoehorned illness thread), but each beat is sincere. Some might call it a repetitive retread, yet Creed's refreshing perspective justifies its journey. The protagonists have meaningful motivations, the ending is grounded, the payoff is earned, and there are themes of family, legacy, loss, and community. Also, the acting provides committed physicality, vulnerability, layers, chemistry, and intensity. Its dialogue is blunt, its plot is improbable, and sports movies are inherently formulaic, but Creed has enough passion, substance, and self-awareness to overcome its faults.
Technically, Creed is gripping. Its visuals use handhelds, long takes, planned movement, symbolic lighting, composition, angles, focus, framing, and color for deep immersion. Its hypnotic sound utilizes split cuts, echoes, emphasis, muffling, stings, leveling, distortion, and silence. The varied editing minimizes action cuts while maximizing montages, intercuts, slo-mo, smash cuts, inserts, jump cuts, and cooldowns. Its thrilling music perfectly blends classic and modern influences to create motifs and punctuation. Plus, fighting effects are vivid, the cast is definitive, and the production design ranges from grit to limelight. Overall, Creed is dynamic, naturalistic, energizing, and skillful.
Writing: 7/10
Direction: 9/10
Cinematography: 9/10
Acting: 8/10
Editing: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Score/Soundtrack: 10/10
Production Design: 8/10
Casting: 9/10
Effects: 7/10
Overall Score: 8.6/10
Comments