YMMV / Creed II

• Awesome Music: The use of DMX's "Who We Be" in combination with the classic Rocky theme near the end of the second trailer is incredible to say the least.
  • Just like Ludwig Göransson's track from the first film, "You're a Creed", this film's score track "It's Your Time" utilizes the famous riff from "Gonna Fly Now" and does so in a more prominent manner compared to the previous film.
  • "Drago's Walk Out", which plays when Viktor walks into the arena for the final fight, is a pretty epic orchestral piece.
• Cliché Storm: Several critics knocked the film for having a completely stock plot for the franchise, in stark contrast to the refreshing new approach of the first Creed, calling it an obvious consequence of Ryan Coogler not being behind this one.
• Contested Sequel: Opinion is divided between whether this film is a worthy follow-up to the the first film, or too reliant on retreading the usual tropes of past Rocky films. On the other hand, this movie is considered an Even Better Sequel to Rocky IV, in part due to the Character Development of Ivan Drago.
• Fan Nickname: Much like the first Creed is sometimes affectionately called Rocky VII, this one is sometimes affectionately called Rocky VIII as well.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: When the Locker Room deleted scene was revealed, many questioned why it was cut in the first place, and stated that it provided a more satisfying ending by delivering closure to all four characters, as well as giving even more humanization to the already-popular portrayal of the Dragos.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Dolph Lundgren’s return performance as Ivan Drago has been praised by fans and critics for successfully humanizing a character who was previously seen as a walking comic book supervillain.
  • Florian Munteanu is mostly a silent, seething monster as Viktor Drago, but his impassioned speech to his father about Russia and his mother abandoning them after Ivan's loss to Rocky is incredibly heartfelt and raw and he makes Viktor's desire for his father's approval as well as his hurt and anger about his abandonment very poignant, making Viktor very sympathetic even as we still root for Donnie.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The boxing matches during the movie are covered by HBO Sports boxing program. At the end of 2018, during their year end boxing broadcast, long time HBO commentator Jim Lampley announced that HBO Boxing was coming to an end, and along with his broadcast partners, Roy Jones Jr. and Max Kellerman, give their final tearful goodbyes as they play a video montage of the programs best historical fight highlights and broadcast moments.
• Jerkass Woobie: Ivan Drago. His life pretty much fell apart after losing to Rocky, culminating in his wife Ludmilla abandoning him and his son. It’s heavily implied in the film that the immense pressure he puts on Viktor to become heavyweight champion is not just to restore his lost honor and reputation but also in the hope it will bring Ludmilla back.
• Memetic Mutation: The initial poster◊ made Jordan look like he had a ridiculously high fade, which prompted a lot of jokes about stupidly tall hairdos.
• Nightmare Fuel: Adonis' first fight with Viktor and his injuries in the aftermath, including a concussion, several broken ribs and a ruptured kidney. It draws plenty of uncomfortable parallels between the match that killed his father thirty years prior. Furthermore, while recovering from said injuries, we see him at one point urinating blood. The only consolation is that unlike his father, he's still alive to fight him again.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ivan Drago was frequently viewed by fans as the symbol of when Rocky dipped far too much into silliness and being a fairly one note villain in general. One of the things the film is praised for is humanizing the character and consequently making him far more interesting and tragic.
• Rooting for the Empire: Some viewers found themselves rooting for Viktor in the fight against Adonis, noting his tragic backstory and the fact that fighting is his only way to climb out of poverty as significantly more sympathetic motive than Adonis' need to prove himself. This is helped by many thinking that Adonis acted more of a Jerkass to Viktor than Viktor himself did to Adonis.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Adonis' rise to championship and victory over "Stuntman" Wheeler could have been its own film, rather than simply the start of his battle with Viktor.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Adonis throughout the entire film is never able to make a successful counterargument to everyone pointing out he has nothing to gain and everything to lose fighting Viktor Drago, which just makes him look arrogant and stupid. It gets worse at the end when, after getting destroyed the first time and having a child, he decides to fight Viktor again, the only difference this time being that he guilted Rocky into training him despite Rocky's trauma over the whole thing.
• The Woobie:
  • Adonis and Bianca, in the aftermath of his initial failed, brutal match with Viktor and upon learning that their newborn daughter is deaf. There's also the scene where the former is looking at a recording of the match where his father died, only for him to shut it off when he can no longer stomach viewing it.
  • Viktor Drago, who was abandoned by his mother when he was young, forced to live in poverty and basically raised from birth to go through Training from Hell via his father, who is still embittered from his loss three decades ago and all that it did to their lives. And he meets up with his mother and her new, wealthy husband in between the two matches who expresses her pride in him, only for her to cruelly and remorselessly abandon him again when he's about to lose the rematch.

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