Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Adonis Creed has been thriving in both his boxing career and family life, but when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces, the face-off is more than just a fight.
Review: Creed III continues the revival of a decades old story made new, the third movie and the directorial debut of a first-time director in the form of lead star Michael B. Jordan. There were so many odds stacked against the successes of this boxing franchise and yet not only is Creed III an exceptionally good movie, it’s the kind of movie so good you’ll find yourself wondering, where can they possibly go next with it?
Sylvester Stallone passed the torch to Michael B. Jordan in the second movie turning the Rocky franchise into the Creed one audiences are enjoying now. This time around Jordan returns a bit older and newly retired world champion, Adonis Creed. His life dreams seemingly achieved, Adonis is enjoying his family life with deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) and singer/songwriter wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) when old childhood guilt, trauma and unresolved issues return in the form of Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors of Lovecraft Country, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania). Ironically fans of the MCU will see the parallels to his role as Killmonger in Black Panther, but this time around it’s Michael B. Jordan who has to face an enemy who feels like he was robbed of his rightful claim to fame and who wants to take away what Creed has built.
Now if you’re watching a boxing movie you might care about the characters, but we all know what you really want to see is the actual fighting. And Michael B. Jordan’s experiences in front of the camera, as well as his love for Japanese anime (something he always speaks highly of) both come together to work like gangbusters. Jordan directs these scenes with the same kind of flair and energy one would see in anime like Dragon Ball Z (one of his personal favourites) while never losing site of the realism needed to sell it as a world championship boxing match. We also get multiple montages (did you know Stallone was the inventor of the training montage?) as well as a great soundtrack and score all coming together to keep the heart pumping and the pacing just right for a story like this one.
Jonathan Majors is an actor who feels like he came out of nowhere to just dominate everything around him and it’s that kind of screen presence that makes his performance of Damian Anderson feel both grounded and larger than life. The two work as well together as Sly Stallone and Carl Weathers did in the Rocky movies, which just goes to show Michael B. Jordan paid attention to every single detail and put his heart, sweat and soul into ensuring he got Creed III right.
All of the actors, roles large or small, left a solid impact here, with Tessa Thompson and Jordan still having that great chemistry that brought and kept them together and Phylicia Rashad as Mary-Anne Creed’s impactful appearances as Adonis’ mom all coming together to sell them as a real familial unit.
Listen I wouldn’t count myself as a fan of sports movies, but when they’re great (Warriors, Cinderella Man, Rocky IV, Southpaw) like a solid uppercut, they leave one hell of an impression on me, and that’s exactly what Creed III has done. Michael B. Jordan did an outstanding job in his directorial debut and he should be very proud of the outcome, and this trilogy as a whole has solidified itself as one that can stand proudly alongside the Rocky franchise that gave birth to it.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Are you a fan of the Creed films? Which is your favourite? And you can check out more punchy film reviews below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
Double Tap Baby!