I think Stallone is still stuck in his Rocky II phase. In that, I mean that he still wants to be big hollywood.
The Expendables is what I reference.
He still wants to be in this peak physical condition, to look good in suits. Which I get. It is great that he's still in great shape. Tall, good posture, still imposing in size.
And he is an incredible actor too.
Rocky. Amazing. I will always respect him for Rocky. Always. 2, 3, good. 4,5,6 were ok. 4 was very Hollywood, but ok, 5 and 6 kinda seemed half baked, but the problem is that Rocky didn't have a character to work against. And in truth, they had absolutely no idea how to deal with Rocky out of the ring.
With Creed, they got a good actor with MBJ. A brilliant premise, but they got it wrong with the look and feel of the movie. It was too clean, and the actors in too much of perfect shape and looking beautiful and perfect.
It's Hollywood, so I can accept that I guess. Beauty casting.
I got my moment, and I guess that's enough, but I really wish they explored the relationship and that moment in time more.
That moment for me was after Creedjr is in the Locker room and sees the pamphlets in Rocky's coat.
Cognitivly, this was the full circle for Rocky for me. It think it was the first time that the camera even attempted to shoot 'real' and show the fact that Rocky, is, infact, a very old man. But the camera did it very poorly.
It was the first time that makeup turned down the effort in making stallone look like hollywood and instead
And it's tough to convey that when Stallone is still in very good physical shape. Even better than Arnie.
When Stallone is giving his speech about everyone is dead and behind him, it's such a strong, clean, confident monologue through the posture and the wardrobe, and it conflicts with what I think that the story was trying to say. That even Rocky needs a Rocky.
This cleanliness is something that I kind of hate. It takes away from the authenticity for me. It's like Indiana Jones 4. Indy seemed to have cleaned and pressed khaki pants in the jungle. I picked up on that pretty quick on IJ4 and from that knew that it was going to be a terrible movie. It's a green M and M for me.
So going back to that scene in Rocky, I wanted Stallone older, with older broken clothes, with not so strong of a posture, an older broken Rocky, but still with the positive attitude, but without as strong a fire behind it.
What I wanted was for the Director to convey more strongly to the audience that Rocky, as best as he could try, is no longer Rocky anymore.
I wanted to see a moment where Rocky understands that he's no longer Rocky any more, and has to accept that he is now Mickey.
That scene in Rocky where Mickey comes up into Rocky's crummy apartment and begs/offers to be Rocky's trainer. And Mickey walks out and Rocky chases after him.
I don't think a mimmick of the scene is necessary, but some sort of acknowledgement that Rocky needs people as much as people need him would have been a nice nod to the first film and a nice close to this chapter.
Don't get me wrong. Creed is a great movie, but after a lot of thinking this is what I would think would have pushed this movie from Oscar contender to AFI 100 best movies of all time.