Salah satu kalimat paling overused in this blog is AMAZING. I fucking hate to say it again, but CREED is AMAZING!

I’m not gonna tell you all the plot, karena emang film2 kaya gini biasanya alurnya udah ketebak. Garis besarnya ya cerita tentang anaknya Apollo Creed yang coba making his own legacy di dunia Tinju, seeking out Rocky Balboa buat training him. The plot lebih kurang mirrored the first ROCKY sih, walo lebih ke update buat modern masses. Maksudnya lebih cepet dan flash cut ala the Wrestler, hell, they even using the same cinematographer from Mickey Rouke’s Magnum Opus.

But fuck, ini contoh film yang didesain seratus persen buat bikin grown up men like me crying. Not through bullshit love story or carthaic sick story or whatever the shit it is. Tapi lewat kalimat2 yang berpadu banget ama emosi and everything about the past yang bener2 hit me and gue sure banget, banyak laki-laki dewasa(khususnya yang ngerti sejarah ROCKY). Filmnya sendiri sebenernya gak groundbreaking banget or bikin trend baru sejenisnya lah. But it really really does well banget in terms of everything. STORYLINE? Good pace, dan walo kerasa penuh banget, tetep aja gak terkesan terburu-buru. ACTING? Michael B Jourdan bener2 impressed gue disini. I don’t really give a fuck about him before this movie, but damn, dia bener2 cocok banget as the son of Apollo Creed. Dan kerennya, dia making it in his own karakter. Lepas gitu dari bayang2 Swag and brashnya Carl Weather’s performance as Apollo. The girl who played Bianca juga keren. And very realistic too. Gak kaya typical cewe di film2 kaya gini yang biasanya cuma jadi tempelan doang. Dia bisa berdiri dengan tegak banget with her own two feet of confident.

And Slyvester Stallone…

This is his best performance of all time. Look, gue itu big fan of Stallone acting chop, baca aja postingan gue tentang favorite actor, but damn, gue gak nyangka Stallone bisa se powerful ini. His act, his mannersism, bahkan sampe his shadow yang lurking in the back when Adonis is training itu really really felt like the old ROCKY yang ada disono and helped ADONIS. That’s the key part of Rocky in CREED, his loneliness. Dia gak punya siapa2 di first ROCKY. He gained a ton of caring friends and family over the years, and they’re all gone now. Mickey’s gone. Apollo’s gone. Adrian passed away. Paulie was last. Marie likely moved on with her life, and so did Rocky Jr, all thanks to his help. But now he’s back to square one. He’s got nobody. And when shit comes in, I meant disaat Rocky kena Kanker dan doing all those medication, gila, it hits me hard. That’s Rocky. Hitting by CANCER. I know I know, by the end of the movie he’s still alive, but fuck, He’s still fighting it, and eventually gue yakin bakalan ada saat disaat sekuel dari film ini bakalan deal with Rocky’s Inevitable dead, dan gue yakin itu bakalan jadi film yang paling gue hindarin banget buat gue tonton but gue bakalan nonton juga and at the end shit will hits me hard than anything ever crossed in my life.  Film ini juga pinter banget dalem ngegambarin hubungan antara Balboa and Adonis yang really need each other. They form a real bond not just from the power of montages, but through all the little character detail that the AWESOME DIRECTOR’s Coogler is willing to spend in his 130 minute runtime. Oh, and the best thing about Sly performance di film ini, is his every words. Ampir setiap kalimat itu dibawain ama Sly lewat penekanan dan ekspresi yang dalem dan OLD FLAME that never dies banget. Gue bener2 bisa ngerasain dalem dan bermakna banget. At least ada 3 act yang bikin mata gue banjir. But the most powerful one is at the end. When Adonis said he’s gotta prove kalo dia bukan a mistake, ROCKY catches that word with the only expression that only sly can perform, lalu ngeluarin one of the greatest pep talk in the movie HISTORY. DAMN! When Rocky balboa tell you to knocked the son of the bitch down, YOU KNOCK THE FUCK OUT OF THE SON OF THE BITCH!

And off course, that GREAT MUSIC and SCORE. THAT BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFULLY SHOT PHILLIES and lots of LONG TAKE.  PACE. The final fight yang bener2 crisp and so cathartic, and not just cliche. very thing in the movie has been building to this one match, and payoffs come one after another like a string of fireworks. When Rocky’s theme dimulai di final round, goddamn, I’m HYPE AS FUCK! That final climb up the stairs together, and little conversation about live…perfect, all of it! Semua itu makin ngelengkapin in making this movie as one of my favorite movie of all time.

For guys out there, tonton ni film. And you should not be embarrassed if it ending out with you tasting your own salty tears.

Real men cry at Rocky movies!

9.5/10