Entertainment
‘Creed’ – ‘Rocky’ series reinvented (Movie Review)
By Troy Ribeiro
Film: “Creed”; Director: Ryan Coogler; Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew, Graham McTavish, Wood Harris, Andre Ward and Gabriel Rosado; Rating: ***
“Creed”, directed by Ryan Coogler, is the seventh film and a spin-off from Sylvester Stallone’s original “Rocky” series. It is an underdog boxing drama that forms a chapter of Rocky Balboa’s life.
It is the story of a humble boxer, his mentor and the woman who becomes his significant other and rock of support. The film gives a fresh perspective to an age-old tale of a new generation of underdogs.
Driven by angst and ignominy of being known as the illegitimate son of the famous heavyweight boxer Apollo Creed, Adonis aka Donnie, is on a mission to snub his inner demon, “I am not a mistake”, and prove himself on his own merit in the boxing ring.
In order to break into the professional circuit, Donnie the self-taught boxer, travels from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. He approaches Rocky Balboa, his father’s one-time opponent, to train him.
Rocky takes him under his wings after initially trying to dissuade him with, “Why would you want to pick a fighter’s life, when you don’t have to”.
In the last act, after Adonis says, “So if I fight, you fight”, the film pulsates back to life after a formulaic start and a middle.
The script by Coogler and Aaron Covington hits all the expected beats of the genre, like overcoming insurmountable odds and overwhelming feeling of accomplishments. It is also packed with mantras for winning like, “One step at a time”. It may be easy to predict where the film takes us but our expectations are occasionally surprised by the minute emotional tinges in the narration.
Michael B. Jordan is sincere, effortless and well deserving as Adonis. His character is well-etched and he takes the deserted child we meet in the beginning to a successful, well mannered son who is willing to throw it all away and work hard enough to do what he really wants to do with his life, to an exceptional high.
He is aptly supported by Sylvester Stallone, who as Rocky Balboa, at nearly seventy, resonates with equal vigour. He charms you as the reluctant, self-sacrificing mentor and father-figure in Adonis’s life.
Tessa Thompson as Adonis’s girlfriend Bianca is natural and their onscreen chemistry is palpable.
Wood Haris as the owner of a local gym who dissuades Adonis from hanging around with his fighters, and Phylicia Rashad as Mary Anne Creed, Adonis’s foster mother are pleasant, but wasted.
Cinematographer Maryse Alberti has ingeniously captured some brilliant moments and they have been skilfully layered by editors Michael P. Shawver and Claudia Castello. The layering of the YouTube film along with Adonis trying to emulate his idol, reminds you of the determination and spirit of the self-taught Eklavya from the Indian mythology “Mahabharata”.
The background music, scored by Ludwig Goranson, is mega and rousing, distinctively different compared to the “Rocky” series. The pieces played during the boxing practices are intense and adrenaline packed.
Overall, “Creed” gives a new lease of life to the aging “Rocky” series and is worth a watch.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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