Review of Creed III (2023) by Soulwarfare — 02 Apr 2023

I love the Rocky franchise. It has its lows and its over-the-top entries but for the most part, this series has been mostly hits than misses. Creed was a spinoff and I never expected to enjoy it so immensely. I loved Creed 1 and Creed 2 which is why I was hoping for a hat trick with Creed 3. There was some worry as this is the first entry without Rocky. it was also Michael B. Jordan's directorial debut with him starring as Creed and directing. So does it succeed or is this a miss?

Firstly, Michael did a great job in his directorial debut. He pushes the Creed movies out of Rocky's shadow and gives it more grit. The fights feel more visceral and flashy with some clear anime-inspired influence. He uses a lot of slow-mo which leads to some nice-looking shots. I also think the boxing intro and montage were also really well shot as well. He also does something interesting in the final fight that involves silence which gave it a new feel. The soundtrack was awesome and the cinematography is great. He also gives darker qualities to the story with the backstory and personal connection with the antagonist Damian (Jonathan Majors). On that note, Jonathan Majors is terrific as the antagonist. I love his performance, with the subtle awkwardness and slightly pained expression in the first half. Then in the second half, we get to see Jonathan give an arrogant, menacing performance when he goes full bad guy. I also enjoyed how sympathetic he is as a character as well. You understand why Adonis would help him. Additionally, Michael continues to give a great performance as Adonis Creed with the amount of emotional moments in this film. There is great chemistry between Michael and Jonathan which made the friendship between their characters feel believable. Tessa returns as Bianca and she is good in her small role in this film as well. However, I do have some issues with this film. The first half focuses on building up the characters and eventual conflict which is fine. The second half is incredibly rushed though with clearly many cuts made towards it. We don't get a great sense of how much time passed so it is baffling to suddenly see Damian successful so quickly. It would've helped to have seen Damian in more fights. We could have seen him growing more and more successful while also seeing how much of a threat he is. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't have a lot of boxing fights and enough build-up in the second half. It is also weird how quickly Damian's personality changes. Another issue is the lack of inner conflict for Adonis. We see him feeling guilty about what happened to Damian but that's mostly it. For example, we don't see his doubt about retiring or concern about his daughter and wife. On that note, there is a daughter subplot introduced in this film that went nowhere. Felt very pointless.

Overall, Creed III is another good entry in this franchise. It's an impressive directorial debut from Michael and I look forward to future work from him, Creed or otherwise. Even without Rocky, this franchise seems to be doing well standing on its own feet.