I sat down and watched Creed last week. I thought it would be a mess of a film, but was surprised by the decent reception it got so thought I would give it a chance. For the first 80 minutes I thought it was really not very good at all. I simply didn't care for the Creed character nor his relationship. In fact, at times I couldn't even understand what he was saying when he was speaking to his girlfriend. It is saying something when Rocky is the only one enunciating clearly. Mumble, mumble, slang, mumble. Huh?

The film did really come to life once Rocky started getting sick because you always care deeply about Rocky. He has been with you so long and he really is very old now. The fight at the end was fantastic though and finally I started to get behind Creed. Bellew was corny at times, but he did look very good in the fight, though a bit flabby like Tarver was. The tension was great. My palms were getting hot and I found myself standing up a few times in the living room getting really excited.

Overall I give it 7/10 for the final 40 minutes. I only wish that the character building had been better for Creed and his relationship as it didn't affect me. Rocky and Adrien for instance were drawn so much more tenderly and you really cared, but in this film there was too much waffly mumbling and no real emotion. Very manufactured.

My order of best Rocky films is:

Rocky 1
Rocky 2
Rocky 3
Rocky Balboa
Rocky 5
Rocky 4
Creed