2018 Rental Roundup 5: Creed II, Rampage

Creed II

I praised the first Creed for being precisely what Rocky V should have been and a great way to do a soft reboot of the storied series for a modern audience.

But the sequel pulls a Star Trek Into Darkness and goes back to the nostalgia well instead of spreading its wings and flying toward a new frontier.

While Creed II does push Adonis’ story further, it gives a much more intense focus to being a “Where are they now?” and expanded backstory for Rocky IV’s Ivan Drago. And son.

And I’m not going to say that was an uninteresting story to tell. But it’s a lost opportunity for the franchise. If the Creed series spends any more time looking back, it’s not going to have a path forward when the references run dry.

While the plot is mostly just new details on the now VERY old saw of “Boxer loses fight, boxer wins fight,” we do see some new wrinkles. Perhaps the best example is some very intense physical therapy scenes that really sell the idea that Adonis ever fighting again is the least likely outcome. It almost feels like a plot hole, really.

But yes, your opinion of this movie is probably going to come down to whether what little wholly new material there is to be had is enough to keep the eighth helping of Rocky fresh.

Verdict: Rental (3/5)

Rampage

In case you had to ask, yes, this Dwayne Johnson action-adventure vehicle is loosely adapted from the arcade game of the same name.

They get enough out of it for a (ridiculous) movie by exploring in detail how the game’s monsters came to be (evil science corporation run by a Saturday-morning cartoon villain and her brother) and teasing their destructive prowess before delivering on them rampaging through a city for the third act.

Every single part of this plot is ridiculous, but it doesn’t dwell on any of it long enough to break the movie. The Rock is humorous in one scene, an unstoppable one-man army in the next like he always is. The other characters are one dimensional, but don’t waste your time on it. They’re all just filling their roles to move things along.

I know all that doesn’t sound very compelling, but it makes for better material than trying to adapt Tapper.

The fact is, the movie knows what it is. Unlike, say, Lucy, the movie is what it wants to be, does some entertaining things along the way, and doesn’t pretend it’s anything more than this.

In the end, it’s just dumb fun without being too dumb. The Rock seems to have a knack for those kinds of movies. Perhaps my childhood dream of him and Vin Diesel starring in an adaptation of Contra may yet come to pass.

If you handle Rampage the way my dad handled VanHellsing — Treating it as a movie for which you just have a beer, sit and watch — you’ll do fine.

Verdict: Rental (3/5).