The Herald - The Herald Magazine

It’s a Rocky road to fame

Sylvester Stallone reinvented his franchise once. Can he triumph again?

- ALISON ROWAT

CREED II, the eighth film in the Rocky franchise, is as predictabl­e as Greenwich Mean Time, cheesier than the world’s biggest fondue, and so drenched in sentimenta­lity it

makes early Disney cartoons look like red-in-tooth-and-claw wildlife documentar­ies.

But if you do not feel a flutter in the chest when the Rocky tune strikes up during Steven Caple Jr’s picture, then, I’m sorry, you have no cinematic soul, and need to leave this page immediatel­y.

Sylvester Stallone, who started the Rocky tale 42 years ago, successful­ly rebooted it in 2015 with the story of Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo, Rocky’s foe turned friend. Adonis wanted to be a champ like dear old dad, and who else could take him there but Rocky Balboa?

Having dug into the back catalogue once, it was clearly too tempting not to go back again. After all, superhero movies do it all the time, and who is Rocky but a superhero fallen to Earth with an almighty bump?

In Creed II, Stallone (acting, writing, producing) doubles down, pitting Adonis against the son of Drago, the man who battered Apollo so badly he died in the ring. (Remember: Rocky went to Russia to avenge his friend, beat Drago, and delivered a speech to the crowd that single-handedly ended the Cold War? Of course you do.)

Life has been sweet to Adonis (Michael B Jordan, Black Panther). He has his championsh­ip belt, his singer girlfriend (Tessa Thompson), is by his side, and Rocky will be in his corner when it comes time to defend his title.

But then a wily promoter hears talk of a new fighter in Ukraine with an infamous surname, puts two and two together, and yet another fight of the century is born.

Life has been far from sweet for Ivan Drago (a nicely mournful Dolph Lundgren) and his son Viktor (Romanian actor Florian Munteanu). Cast out of Russia after his defeat, Ivan lost everything except his son, and now he wants revenge, and a big pay day.

Rocky thinks it is a terrible idea.

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