Creed II Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack Review
By Paul Rudoff on Mar. 15, 2019 at 4:40 PM in Home Video

Creed II is the latest film in the Rocky and Creed franchises. How does it fare? Read on to find out...

The first Creed was a spin-off from the Rocky franchise that was unique for such a film. While it was a passing of the torch from one generation to another, it was not from Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to his son, as would have been expected. Instead, the tale focused on Apollo Creed's illegitimate son, Adonis "Donnie" Creed (Michael B. Jordan), though it respected its audience enough to explain why Rocky's son didn't follow in his father's footsteps. (Short answer: Rocky's son Robert didn't like boxing.) Creed was an excellent movie that, while sticking to the tropes of the Rocky franchise, had believable characters with all of the drama and excellently choreographed fight sequences you'd expect. I could have done without all of the horrible modern rap music, but the score by Ludwig Goransson was great, with nice little touches to Bill Conti's classic score.

Creed II picks up just a short time after where the original left off. Donnie is still with musician Bianca (Tessa Thompson), whom he is engaged to after getting her pregnant. Together, they move to Los Angeles, so they can be closer to his mother, Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), and she can be closer to the music industry to help further her career. Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), Rocky's nemesis from Rocky IV, and the man responsible for killing Donnie's father in that film, enters the picture with his son, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), looking for a fight against the younger Creed in hopes of capitalizing on the history between the families.

I was smart to watch both Creed films back-to-back because, while the second film certainly stands on its own, it makes much more sense when you see the first one beforehand. Creed II is a good film, but honestly, it is a huge step down from its predecessor. At over two hours, it runs a tad too long for its own good (it's only 3 minutes shorter than Creed). There are subplots, like one involving the Creed's baby's possible hearing loss, that go nowhere and have no effect on the movie. Even the character of Bianca is given less to do, here. That said, it works as a nice follow-up as it strengthens the theme of "legacy", and the ending puts a nice little bow on things. I'd be happy if they left the franchise alone after these two films, as it has a satisfying conclusion, but knowing Hollywood, they'll likely make a third one. I'm not sure where they could go from here, but I sincerely hope they don't run the Creed franchise into the ground like they did with the Rocky franchise.

At a runtime of 2:10:00, Creed II is presented in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio with an 1080p transfer. On the audio side, there are Dolby Atmos-TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio tracks for English, and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks for English Descriptive, French, and Spanish. The film includes English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles. The first print run includes a beautiful slipsleeve.

It should be noted that there are burnt-in yellow English subtitles that translate some Russian dialog a few times in the film. Also, a major film flub during the first Creed-Drago fight, where the fight commentator refers to Viktor as "Ivan", is corrected in the English subtitles, though the original audio remains.
All of the bonus features that can be found on the disc are in HD.
- Fathers and Sons (7:16) - Cast and crew members discuss the father/son theme that runs through the film.
- Casting Viktor Drago (5:43) - Florian Munteanu's character is discussed by the actor.
- The Woman of Creed II (5:51) - Phylicia Rashad and Tessa Thompson talk about their characters.
- The Rocky Legacy (15:01) - Dolph Lundgren hosts this overview of the Rocky and Creed films with plenty of film clips and comments from the cast and crew.
- Deleted Scenes (9:46) - Four scenes shown back-to-back named "Rocky's Eulogy for Spider Rico", "Max's Cheesesteak Restaurant (Extended)", "Rocky Trains Kids", and "Locker Room".

A Movies Anywhere/Vudu digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard two-disc Blu-ray case.

Creed II is available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, 4K UHD Combo Pack, and individual DVD. The previous film, Creed, is available on Blu-ray, and individual DVD. The original six films in the Rocky franchise are available on Blu-ray in the Rocky: Heavyweight Collection set.
All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film, and the official Warner Bros. Flickr gallery. The Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack has been provided by Warner Brothers for review on this site.
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