Something strange dawned on me just before watching Creed, the latest Rocky Balboa movie. The first Rocky came out in 1976; Creed is now the seventh in the franchise. A week ago, I watched another movie that represented the seventh entry in its respective franchise -- Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The year the first Star Wars came out? 1977.
This is all mostly just circumstantial coincidence; but I think it reveals some interesting parallels between these two film franchises. Based on fan base and institutional branding, the Star Wars franchise clearly overshadows Stallone’s tale of a scrappy Philly boxer. The budget and technical prowess in a single Star Wars movie probably eclipses that in the entirety of the Rocky series. But both franchises also share various similarities -- an instantaneous ignition of admiration and fandom upon its initial release; an easily identifiable narrative arc throughout its movies; a less-than-subjective drop in quality with each subsequent chapter.
Creed roughly takes place a few years after the events of the previous movie, Rocky Balboa (the movie essentially accepts the established canon without explicitly disowning or overriding any previous events). Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, Adonis, is a lost, troubled young man. Wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, Adonis seeks out Rocky for training both as an athlete and as a man.
I loved Creed. It had grit. It had heart. It had urgency. It was supremely shot, accented by its volatile long takes. And that score! But as I watched Adonis Creed’s journey, I couldn’t help but think of The Force Awakens. Usually I wouldn’t compare a sports-drama against an epic sci-fi adventure but in this case, there are some more than intriguing threads to explore. Essentially, Creed acts as a reboot to the franchise -- it finds an angle to introduce a new protagonist; it brings back characters or callbacks from the older movies; it passes the baton to the new generation and sets up new entries in the future. This is exactly what The Force Awakens tries to do as well. But here is where I have some issues.
As its title implies, Creed is centered on Apollo Creed’s legacy. By introducing Adonis as Apollo’s bastard son, Adonis is automatically set up against the odds. He must battle both his own demons and his father’s shadow. The emotional arc of the movie hinges on Adonis’ acceptance of his last name, his coming to terms with not only his background, but his father’s legacy. By doing so, he grows as a character which grants him new grounds to explore in subsequent sequels. The Force Awakens similarly sets up Rey as a scrappy underdog. She’s poor, forgotten, overlooked. And soon she finds herself on a course of action that could impact the entire galaxy. However, this is where The Force Awakens differs. We are never told where Rey comes from -- it’s meant to be one of the great mysteries of this new trilogy, I presume. Making her lineage unclear is fine, but it also lessens the urgency to understand or relate to her as a lead character. The more critical difference here is Rey’s objective. More than once, Rey states that she simply wants to go home, that she’s not meant for this journey. She’s a reluctant hero… until the force beckons her to fulfill her Jedi destiny (or something to that effect).
Playing the reluctant hero is not a problem -- one could argue the crux of Creed is Adonis’ reluctance to acknowledge his father’s name. But this is where The Force Awakens took a misstep. As I briefly mentioned in my discussion, The Force Awakens has some strange structural and narrative problems, mainly due to the attempted meshing of the old (e.g. Han Solo) and the new (e.g. Rey). Once Rey escapes her home planet, she runs into Han who instantly takes over the film. He’s the one who drags her to the alien pirate cantina; he’s the one who leads the Resistance charge on the new superweapon; he’s the one who (indirectly) propels the actions of almost everyone in the final act. By introducing Han in The Force Awakens, the movie is weighed down by the need to fill out his character arc, spending significant time on his objectives. This inherently precludes the amount of time spent with Rey. It’s a tough balancing act I know, but The Force Awakens grinds to a halt when the attention shifts from the new heroes to Han Solo, mainly because he doesn’t add any character dimensions to the new heroes, only himself.
This is why, in simplest terms, Creed is a better structured story. Not unlike The Force Awakens bringing back Han, Creed also brings back Rocky Balboa, now retired and aging. But Creed never lets him supplant the new protagonist. Rocky’s objectives don’t overshadow Adonis’, they complement his. Each act of the film is driven by Adonis’ decisions, his actions, his ambitions. By keeping the narrative focus on Adonis’ journey, we’re left with a rousing and fulfilling ending to this chapter of Adonis’ story.
This all boils down to one word: agency. How does the protagonist impact the story? Adonis forges his own path; Rey is hurried, threatened, captured, and galvanized by others at every step. This is not to say that The Force Awakens doesn’t tell a good story -- one could argue it’s pretty much the same story as A New Hope and everyone likes that one! -- it’s merely to point out both these movies attempted to reboot the franchise through similar concepts but used vastly different narrative techniques. If I had to choose between the behemoth that is Star Wars or the scrappy underdog, consider me a fan of Creed and the underdog’s exciting new direction.
This is all mostly just circumstantial coincidence; but I think it reveals some interesting parallels between these two film franchises. Based on fan base and institutional branding, the Star Wars franchise clearly overshadows Stallone’s tale of a scrappy Philly boxer. The budget and technical prowess in a single Star Wars movie probably eclipses that in the entirety of the Rocky series. But both franchises also share various similarities -- an instantaneous ignition of admiration and fandom upon its initial release; an easily identifiable narrative arc throughout its movies; a less-than-subjective drop in quality with each subsequent chapter.
Creed roughly takes place a few years after the events of the previous movie, Rocky Balboa (the movie essentially accepts the established canon without explicitly disowning or overriding any previous events). Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, Adonis, is a lost, troubled young man. Wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, Adonis seeks out Rocky for training both as an athlete and as a man.
I loved Creed. It had grit. It had heart. It had urgency. It was supremely shot, accented by its volatile long takes. And that score! But as I watched Adonis Creed’s journey, I couldn’t help but think of The Force Awakens. Usually I wouldn’t compare a sports-drama against an epic sci-fi adventure but in this case, there are some more than intriguing threads to explore. Essentially, Creed acts as a reboot to the franchise -- it finds an angle to introduce a new protagonist; it brings back characters or callbacks from the older movies; it passes the baton to the new generation and sets up new entries in the future. This is exactly what The Force Awakens tries to do as well. But here is where I have some issues.
As its title implies, Creed is centered on Apollo Creed’s legacy. By introducing Adonis as Apollo’s bastard son, Adonis is automatically set up against the odds. He must battle both his own demons and his father’s shadow. The emotional arc of the movie hinges on Adonis’ acceptance of his last name, his coming to terms with not only his background, but his father’s legacy. By doing so, he grows as a character which grants him new grounds to explore in subsequent sequels. The Force Awakens similarly sets up Rey as a scrappy underdog. She’s poor, forgotten, overlooked. And soon she finds herself on a course of action that could impact the entire galaxy. However, this is where The Force Awakens differs. We are never told where Rey comes from -- it’s meant to be one of the great mysteries of this new trilogy, I presume. Making her lineage unclear is fine, but it also lessens the urgency to understand or relate to her as a lead character. The more critical difference here is Rey’s objective. More than once, Rey states that she simply wants to go home, that she’s not meant for this journey. She’s a reluctant hero… until the force beckons her to fulfill her Jedi destiny (or something to that effect).
Playing the reluctant hero is not a problem -- one could argue the crux of Creed is Adonis’ reluctance to acknowledge his father’s name. But this is where The Force Awakens took a misstep. As I briefly mentioned in my discussion, The Force Awakens has some strange structural and narrative problems, mainly due to the attempted meshing of the old (e.g. Han Solo) and the new (e.g. Rey). Once Rey escapes her home planet, she runs into Han who instantly takes over the film. He’s the one who drags her to the alien pirate cantina; he’s the one who leads the Resistance charge on the new superweapon; he’s the one who (indirectly) propels the actions of almost everyone in the final act. By introducing Han in The Force Awakens, the movie is weighed down by the need to fill out his character arc, spending significant time on his objectives. This inherently precludes the amount of time spent with Rey. It’s a tough balancing act I know, but The Force Awakens grinds to a halt when the attention shifts from the new heroes to Han Solo, mainly because he doesn’t add any character dimensions to the new heroes, only himself.
This is why, in simplest terms, Creed is a better structured story. Not unlike The Force Awakens bringing back Han, Creed also brings back Rocky Balboa, now retired and aging. But Creed never lets him supplant the new protagonist. Rocky’s objectives don’t overshadow Adonis’, they complement his. Each act of the film is driven by Adonis’ decisions, his actions, his ambitions. By keeping the narrative focus on Adonis’ journey, we’re left with a rousing and fulfilling ending to this chapter of Adonis’ story.
This all boils down to one word: agency. How does the protagonist impact the story? Adonis forges his own path; Rey is hurried, threatened, captured, and galvanized by others at every step. This is not to say that The Force Awakens doesn’t tell a good story -- one could argue it’s pretty much the same story as A New Hope and everyone likes that one! -- it’s merely to point out both these movies attempted to reboot the franchise through similar concepts but used vastly different narrative techniques. If I had to choose between the behemoth that is Star Wars or the scrappy underdog, consider me a fan of Creed and the underdog’s exciting new direction.
