Given the first Creed, I went into Creed II with fairly high expectations. And boy oh boy, was I let down.

But first, the good. I thought Drago was the perfect adversary. While I wish the film dug a bit deeper into his backstory, Drago is a beast.

As for the rest of the film, it's pretty lackluster. The drama is forced, the plot is boring, and the story is predictable. At the end of Creed, I was excited and ready to throw some punches. At the end of Creed II, I was ready to throw in the towel. But let's get a little more specific...

The opening scene looked and felt cheap. Creed is supposed to be the world champion and this sequence lacked energy. I've seen more exciting fights between middle school students in the streets of Philly (true story).

Some of the dialogue was incredibly cringe worthy and no actor could pull it off. "Those dudes killed my pops" - Creed

***MILD SPOILER*** And then there's the sequence where Creed and Bianca find out that they're having a baby. So the scene starts at dinner, with Creed's mom. Mom says, "I think you might be pregnant." Then the film cuts to Creed and Bianca doing a home pregnancy test and they find out that she is, indeed, pregnant. And then the scene cuts back to dinner with Creed's mom. So were there two separate dinners? Or does Creed's mom just have home pregnancy tests lying around the house? It was at this point, that I began to check out. If the film doesn't give two shits, then why should I?

Ultimately, I blame the director. Creed II suffers without the direction of Coogler. Capler Jr. is no Coogler and his absence can be felt in almost every frame of the film.​

Final Grade: C-

Dragos good. Punching good. The rest bad.

I LOVE ROCKY. I'm what you'd call a hardcore Rocky fan. The type that wins on super-hard trivia quizzes. I grew up with these movies. I've watched each one, at least five-six times.

THAT SAID... I thought Creed 1 was HOT GARBAGE. Basically a re-hash of the original with super-cringy dialogue. I could barely finish it. I was in pain, people.

When I started to watch the trailer for Creed 2. I turned it off about 40 seconds in. I was in pain again.

I don't need pain in my life. I have no plans of watching this mess. I just thought I should let you all know how I feel. Thank you for allowing me to vent. Have a nice day.

***MILD SPOILER***

Quoted from albinopenguin ***MILD SPOILER*** And then there's the sequence where Creed and Bianca find out that they're having a baby. So the scene starts at dinner, with Creed's mom. Mom says, "I think you might be pregnant." Then the film cuts to Creed and Bianca doing a home pregnancy test and they find out that she is, indeed, pregnant. And then the scene cuts back to dinner with Creed's mom. So were there two separate dinners? Or does Creed's mom just have home pregnancy tests lying around the house? It was at this point, that I began to check out. If the film doesn't give two shits, then why should I?

Haven't seen the film, but it sounds like this might be a flashback? In that case, Creed and Bianca already knew when Creed's mom guessed. Of course, if not-telling-Mom had no impact on the story, then it was extra screentime and potential confusion for no gain.