Movie review: Stallone delivers knockout turn with Creed II

Sylvester Stallone claims that this is it for Rocky Balboa. He is done. No more.

If this is a ploy to get some sympathy votes come awards season, I would tell him to not bother.

Stallone - and I did not expect this going into Creed II - is brilliant.

The performance of a lifetime. The heart of the film.

For an actor who has become synonymous with the dafter side of Hollywood, he packs an emotional punch here.

This sequel could easily have been a disaster. An arguably unnecessary sequel without original director Ryan Coogler, the man who helmed 2015's Creed and reinvigorated a 39-year-old franchise, it was a risk.

While Stallone has screenplay credit, he knows when to step back.

In fact, Rocky is rarely in the foreground and often in the shadows, playing punch-drunk slurring trainer to Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed.

Where you might expect the big emotional speech, Stallone just gives a shrug, a grunt and shuffles away. And it hits you right in the feels - as the kids used to say.

But while Stallone steals the show, that is not to say that the rest of the cast sit back.

The big speeches are left to Jordan, Tessa Thompson as his baby mama and the secret weapon Phylicia Rashad as Adonis' stepmum.

And while nobody gives an angry mother stare like Rashad, Creed II is all about the dads.

You have Rocky and Adonis' co-dependent surrogate father-son bond, Adonis' own venture into fatherhood and of course, Dolph Lundgren and Florian Munteanu as the wounded beasts that manage to make you feel sympathy for the villains.

While the fight choreography is on point and the sound editing of punches makes it feel like you are the one who has been hit, the fights are somewhat let down by disappointingly flat green screen stadiums.

Yet, they are like obligatory checkpoints to pass through. You know how each will turn out.

It is the action outside of the ring that hits hardest.

Rating: 3.5

MOVIE: Creed II

STARRING: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren, Florian Munteanu

DIRECTOR: Steven Caple Jr

THE SKINNY: After winning the world title under the tutelage of Rocky Balboa (Stallone), Adonis Creed (Jordan) must face a dark shadow from his dad's past - Viktor Drago (Munteanu), son of Ivan Drago (Lundgren), who killed Creed's father in the ring.

RATING: PG13