This is the best ‘Rocky’ film since the original

Rocky, a movie where the big fight at the end is nearly an afterthought to the central love story and underdog tale about working class people hurting for a second shot at respect, spawned four sequels, and while they varied in quality, it wasn’t until 2006’s Rocky Balboa that star and series creator Sylvester Stallone brought the character back to his quiet roots and found a nice coda to the boxer’s tale.

In the original film, Rocky hung out in a bar so run down that in one scene his best friend struggles to comb his hair in a bathroom mirror so broken that only a fragment of glass remains. Then he’s rescued by Creed’s magnanimous widow who lives in a Los Angeles mansion where we meet up with him a decade later. However, he still hungers to fight.

One of the reasons why “Creed” finds itself fourth among the now seven Rocky movies is that it continuously stops and goes. Alone in the world and waiting to join his dead loved ones, Creed’s Rocky is a tragic figure.

Music is integral to “Creed”, not just on the soundtrack but in Adonis’ new life in Philadelphia: The downstairs neighbor in his apartment building is Bianca (Tessa Thompson), a singer/songwriter who works on her trippy, soulful tunes at full blast.

Before you know it (there wouldn’t be any movie if he didn’t), Rocky is helping Adonis out, cluing him in to old-school training methods like chasing chickens to increase your speed and doing lots and lots of roadwork.

It was weird news, a couple of years ago, to learn that Ryan Coogler would helm a Rockyspin-off focusing on the son of Apollo Creed.

The first of three training montages kicks in, as does Adonis’ romance with the musician downstairs, Bianca (Tessa Thompson, from “Dear White People” and a huge asset here).

The filmmaker isn’t content to simply make “Rocky VII”, of course. And sistine trying to make her own name.

No, the things these two warriors say to each other and to the boxing media don’t have the concussed groundedness of “Southpaw”.

“It’s the same way Rocky saw a little of himself in Adonis”, Jordan said of the men, “that persistence and everything”. Agreeing to take him on, Rocky trains the young fighter, even as the former champ is battling an opponent more deadly than any he faced in the ring.

That’s no small feat, especially as Rocky movies go.

Call it a draw, with maybe a slight edge to Stallone because his performance is such a pleasant surprise. Jordan plays a 30-year-old in this film, so to not give any major spoilers away, let’s assume he was in utero at the time of his father’s death, OK? From the view of someone watching the film, Apollo died before he was born so there is nothing he could have done do cause Donnie to hate him. Adonis has a large chip on his shoulder.

“I don’t ever want to be in a position where I can’t answer his questions, so I’ve got to do the work myself”, said Coogler, who was inspired by Stallone’s commitment to the craft.

Stallone hasn’t been this good since his original outing as the Italian Stallion back in 1976.

It is the seventh entry in the venerable “Rocky” franchise, and the first not to be written by Sylvester Stallone.

But the Rocky films have always revolved around the theme of loss, both in and out of the ring.

So far, “Creed” is getting good reviews, so the “Rocky” series at least seems to have succeeded with this strategy. And this isn’t a case of Stallone recruiting a hot young director to breathe new life into his cash cow; Coogler went to Stallone with the idea, calling it his dream project (and, a nice bonus, a real shot at the mainstream hit he deserves). Anyone can spinoff characters, but it takes real insight and skill to spinoff the spirit of a franchise, and Coogler does it magnificently.

But when it does come time to get into the ring, Coogler is masterful. “I don’t think he was so into it”. Sure, majority are exactly the same movie. Moves to Philly, connects with Rocky, who’s tending the restaurant and still wearing that hat? None more so than when he filmed alone reading his newspaper, while sitting next to the graves of Adrian and Paulie.