So stepping into the ring is the ninth entry in the Rocky franchise, which features its star Michael B. Jordan also making his directorial debut.

It has a familiar theme to it, that sees a retired champ having to fight one more time, but its generic tone doesn’t appear to have put audiences off, having grossed nearly $275 million dollars against its lightweight budget of only $75 million.

But does this ninth entry pack the kind of punch its predecessors did?

Having retired from the game, the biggest opponent Creed (Johnson) faces on a day to day basis is his young deaf daughter, who certainly has some moves of her own.

He’s not out of the fight game completely however, as he now has his own gym as well as being a fight promoter, handling a big up-coming world title fight.

Then out of the blue, a childhood friend, Damien Anderson (Jonathan Majors), shows up. He and Creed were close back in the day, but when the pair got into trouble, Damien ended up doing time for it.

Now he’s back, and he wants to re-connect with his old buddy. But as Creed soon finds out, that’s not the only thing he wants from him.

When a franchise reaches this kind of number, audiences are willing to accept a few liberties when it comes to the story – just ask any Fast and Furious fan. But this instalment’s main story plot is unforgivably contrived. The notion that Major’s character could be considered a contender for a world title fight, despite not even being a professional boxer, is akin to jumping the shark in a the ring with boxing gloves on. If this is the standard now, expect Creed to be fighting a heavyweight alien next.

It’s a shame as the addition of Major’s is a big selling point, if a tad awkward now, considering he’s facing a number of assault charges, which ironically could see him doing jail time. At least he would have prepped for the role if he does.

Johnson himself still looks the part, but impresses more behind the camera, especially with the fight scenes, which do feel a little thin on the ground this time around.

Not a classic by any means, and as Johnson has promised/threatened more, with both the main franchise and spin-offs, it’s beginning to look like Creed is going to emulate his mentor Rocky, in not knowing when the right time to retire is, and on this effort, it was about ten minutes in.