rocky opens with us seeing him fighting in bum fights for little money
creed opens with us seeing him fighting bum fights in mexico for little money
rocky is south philly trash
adonis goes to south philly to live with trash
rocky asks mickey for guidance and initially gets turned down
adonis asks rocky for guidance and initally gets turned down
mickey trains rocky using chicken chasing
rockey trains adonis using chicken chasing
rocky has a girlfriend who seems to have a mental disability (turns out she's just painfully shy)
adonis has a girlfriend who has some physical disability (hearing loss).
mickey trains rocky in a slugger style
rocky trains adonis in a slugger style
rocky runs through south philly in training
adonis runs through south philly in training
the champ picks rocky out of a hat as a promotional gimmick
the champ uses adonis for his name as a promotional gimmick
creed was nothing but rocky in black skin with some rap in the soundtrack.
IMO they did a disservice to that character by making it basically a Rocky 7 film. Here's a guy who clearly wished he knew his father, wanted to be like his father but left his father's home to walk in the footsteps of his mentor, live his life, live in his home and do exactly when he did. Donny Johnson didn't become ADONIS CREED, SON OF APOLLO, he became Rocky Jr. the son Rocky always wanted. Thats great for Rocky's legacy but not so much for Apollo's.
A PROPER Creed story would have had him in LA..working with Creed's old corner man Duke Evers (Actor Tony Burton is still around in his 70s)
No opening title or music, we go right into the story of the young man who never knew his father but has the same drive and even tho he's a gifted fighter able to adapt and use many styles, he's modeled his fighting style after his father. The attitude, the trash talk and big personality BUT unlike Apollo he doesn't wear it easy, its obvious he's walking in his fathers shoes and he's successful, he's winning fights and bringing the name Creed back but deep down hes STILL troubled because its NOT HIM..its his father. He's successful until he gets to that one opponent he can't beat..Apollo's style and tactics doesn't work on him and Adonis not only suffers his first lost but a Ronda Rousey type lost. With the rematch scheduled his gotta find HIMSELF if he wants to have any chance of beating this guy. Nothing in Apollo's bag of tricks can help him this time.
At the midpoint of the story he has a heart to heart with Apollos wife and she tells him about his father (this gives more meat to Phyllicia Rashad who was underused IMO) then he talks to his corner man Duke, then to his girlfriend who tells him to be himself this is intercut with the training session with duke who telling him pointers on his fathers style.
During the rematch in the 3rd act it plays out very similar to the movie where both fighters are trading blows until Adonis gets knocked down late in the fight. He gets to his feet before the 10 count and goes to his corner where Duke is freaking out. Adonis just closes his eyes and we see flashbacks of Apollo, his wife, Duke and his girlfriend telling to find himself and the bell rings and the final round starts and Adonis switches from his father's style and tactics to something else and throughout the round scores major blows ending in a knock out of his nemesis. Then we go to the epilogue where Adonis is in Philly and he goes into the Italian restaurant Adrian's and Rocky comes out and they talk. Rocky compliments him on his win and says he was wondering when he was going to stop being Apollo and start being himself. And Adonis asks Rocky who won the secret 3rd fight between them and Rocky looks at the picture of them on the wall, looks down then looks at Apollo's son and says "Well if you must know...." and just as he's about to say it we cut to black, and in big letters we see the word CREED (the first time we see the title of the movie)...credits roll..
His own music and style...not rocky's, living his own life not rocky's...if he has a surrogate father figure its Duke, not rocky. Thats what Creed should have been.
Instead it was rocky 2.0 almost step for step.