I finally got around to this, and I think my issue with it is Adonis Creed.
I kind of passed it over in the first one, because, honestly, it was just nice to see another Rocky movie, and you did see Creed train and fight and struggle a bit.
What we have is a kid that grew up an orphan, but at a young age got adopted into a life of privilege, had a good job, and didn't have to struggle financially, until he kind of did when he wanted to become a full time boxer... and then the story takes off.
And that was all passable, because he didn't exactly win did he? It was a hard fought first movie and he still had to go through a pretty tough arch to get to where he was that was both interesting and compelling... so despite the relative flaws in Creed, it was an enjoyable enough film to watch and far better than most of the movies we've been getting lately.
By the time Creed II rolls around, however, Adonis Creed is just whiny. And that's really it, his character isn't really allowed to progress any further, he's not allowed to grow in any way.
The poster suggests that there was a hard fought and emotional battle that Adonis had to over come and made it through a better man that when he started. The raw emotion of the poster makes us believe that he faced something insurmountable and came out victorious through sheer will alone.
And, honestly, that is how the fight itself played out and I loved every minute of it. Both Michael B. Jordan and Florian Munteanu sold each and every blow and you could almost feel it as you sat back shoving your face with popcorn.
But in the end, Adonis was still the same whiny little brat he was at the start of the first Creed installment and we are two films in. He hasn't grown in any way, no personal faults were over come. He's not at all a changed person, so you're left with the feeling that you haven't grown with him, you haven't progressed any, and by the end of the film you are left wondering what the point of it all was.