With the upcoming film Creed, I can't help but ask if the aging boxer Rocky Balboa is really something that audiences care about at all. The movie follows the life of Adonis Johnson, the son of Apollo Creed. For those who are not familiar with the Rocky franchise, Apollo Creed was the challenge for the underdog Balboa to over come, turning from foe in the ring to good friend.
Sylvester Stallone is a far distance from the cinematic draw that he once was in the eighties. In 1985, his films Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV were second and third in the box office respectively. The characters were cartoonish, but it played well with the general thirst for cheesy action that movie goers had during that time period.
A lot has changed in the thirty years that have passed since then. The kinds of films that Stallone was known for now have a difficult time even getting wide releases, and when they do, they end up in the dumping grounds of the winter or mid August. The name of Stallone itself means nothing for ticket sales, with each of his three 2013 releases (Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, and Grudge Match) all falling short of ten million dollars in their opening weekends. Even the revitalizing franchise of The Expendables only made $15.8 million its opening weekend last year. No matter who he is teamed up with, his films just don't have the appeal that they once did.
So, with some pretty dismal numbers leading to an undeniable conclusion that his time of being a draw is long gone, why are we about to see Rocky arrive on screens once again? Is it just an aging actor refusing to let go?
That does not appear to be the case here. For the first time in the Rocky franchise, Sylvester Stallone is not writing the story, but leaving that task to the film's director Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington. Coogler may have only one film under his belt, but that doesn't mean that he is over his head with this potential blockbuster. In 2013 he released his first feature film, Fruitvale Station, which won over critics and audiences and showed his abilities as both a director and writer.
What made Fruitvale Station so powerful was the focus on the final day of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) in a 'based on true events' story that leads to Grant being shot by a BART police officer on new year's eve in 2009. With a true story such as that, the audience knows exactly how it will end, with the sound of a gunshot and the lead dying. However, even with the outcome known, Coogler gets us so invested in the character of Oscar Grant that we beg for the inevitable to not happen.
It is that skill that he brings with him to Creed, in a movie that looks to be a character story of Adonis Johnson, who is played by Michael B. Jordan, making this the second time the two have teamed up together. With Coogler's directing and writing combined with the incredibly powerful yet nuanced abilities of Jordan, it is not surprising that critics are praising this film.
This could be the wisest cinematic move that Stallone has done in recent memory, and that involves the passing of the torch to the next generation. It felt as though his past movie attempts were about keeping the spark of the action hero alive in him, something that the ticket purchasing public could not get into. Now, with him playing the part of mentor for an up and coming super talent, movie goers have a Stallone movie to be excited about once again.
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