‘Creed’ review: Sylvester Stallone back in uneven 7th ‘Rocky’

Philadelphia’s best-known movie boxer, Rocky Balboa, returns in “Creed,” the seventh film in the deathless “Rocky” franchise. Its creator and star, Sylvester Stallone, was throwing punches as recently as 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” but here the 69-year-old actor has hung up his gloves. “Creed” finds him finally playing the trainer, not the fighter.

In this uneven but mostly entertaining chapter, the appealing Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis Johnson, a young boxer hiding his identity as the son of late heavyweight legend Apollo Creed (formerly played by Carl Weathers), Rocky’s great rival and friend. In a poetic twist, Adonis wants Rocky to train him. The two must prepare for a fight against United Kingdom champion “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (real-life British boxer Anthony Bellew).

“Creed” is the Hollywood debut of director Ryan Coogler, whose independent drama “Fruitvale Station” — starring Jordan as real-life police shooting victim Oscar Grant III — created a splash at Sundance in 2013. That movie felt almost like a documentary, and Coogler often takes the same approach here. He makes Philadelphia a character, nicely capturing its gritty-but-friendly vibe. The scenes between Adonis and a pretty singer named Bianca (Tessa Thompson, “Dear White People”) have a natural, easy feel, as if Coogler just found them on the street and started filming.

Coogler wisely turns on the pyrotechnics for the boxing scenes, which range from very good to truly stunning. The film’s second match, in which Adonis squares off against Leo Sporino (Gabriel Rosado, a native Philly boxer), is a bruising battle filmed in a single, head-spinning take. It’s an adrenaline-pumping marvel of filmmaking — but why does it arrive so early? Nothing afterward ever quite matches it.

“Creed” suffers from a wobbly script by Coogler and Aaron Covington. Adonis has an odd backstory — half juvenile delinquent, half rich kid — that doesn’t add up. As a foe, Conlan is formidable but otherwise uninteresting. Still, Stallone settles admirably into his role as the world-weary old trainer; he even eschews the jet-black hair dye he’s been using in his “Expendables” movies.

“Creed” may or may not mark the end of the “Rocky” series. But it may signal a future for Coogler, an underdog who has made it to the big time.