10 Movie Franchises That Made The Same Mistake TWICE
2. Making The "Villain" Too Likeable - Creed
The Rocky franchise has always been known for offering up colourful and often charming villains, though for the most part the filmmakers have understood that the antagonists can't ever be more likeable than the underdog hero.
However, the latter two entries into the Creed franchise unfortunately tipped the balance a little too far in favour of their sympathetic "bad guys," enough that many actually ended up rooting for them over Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) himself.
In Creed II, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) is a savage athlete forced to reside in his father Ivan's (Dolph Lundgren) shadow, while hoping that by defeating Donnie he can earn the respect of his father, his country, and his absentee mother (Brigitte Nielsen).
Viktor Drago is basically a classic Rocky underdog, but the movie ultimately wants you to still buy bigger into Creed's quest for victory, and doesn't quite land it because the stakes are so much lower for Donnie. If he loses, so what? He's still got a great life.
And Creed III made the same fascinating misstep, because while Donnie's troubled childhood friend Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors) is far more of a conniving schemer than Viktor, he's still an immensely sympathetic character.
Dame understandably feels abandoned by Donnie, who as a teenager fled the violent crime scene which led to Dame being jailed, and then failed to make contact with him for 18 years while he was in prison.
Dame's anger is all-too-easy to appreciate, that he wants a slice of the success his nepo baby childhood friend achieved while he was rotting in a cell.
This isn't to excuse Dame's increasingly underhanded tactics, but considering that Donnie again has very little to lose in the fight against him, and basically just wants to live his successful life in peace, it's hard to root for him against Dame.