Creed III Movie Review - The End of a New Era
The unimaginable acclaim that Ryan Coogler’s legacy sequel, Creed, was like lightning in a bottle. An impeccable tour de force that respected the Rocky franchise while bringing fourth to Hollywood a new story to be told and a bright young star in Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle, Fruitvale Station) that changed his career forever. But once we all thought that Creed II was the one to supposedly bring Rocky and Adonis’s character arcs to a close, Jordan has taken the bull by the horns to not only star, but to mark his directing debut the third and final film of the Rocky and Creed franchise, and the results are nothing short of glorious.
In “Creed III”, Adonis retires after years of ruling the boxing world to focusing on his family life and taking charge of Delphi Boxing Academy. But things begin to change once he reunites with his childhood boxing friend Damian, who was recently released from jail and is taken under Adonis’ wing as he yearns for another boxing chance of a lifetime. However, once Adonis notices that Damien is taking his boxing approach a bit too far, he must take matters into his own hands as he realizes that Damian’s actions might be more personal than he thought.
Whereas the first film was about reclaiming his father’s legacy and the second film was about avenging his father’s death, this time Creed III’s central theme is about forgiveness and letting go of the past that has come back to haunt him which is well-written and represented in the conflict between Adonis and Damian (both of which are acted tremendously by Jordan and Johnathan Majors). What makes the duality between Adonis and Damian so compelling, is that the story doesn’t present Major’s villain as another braggadocios, tough-as-nails boxer who’s claims himself as top dog, it’s because he’s written as a struggling, vengeful spirit striving to do whatever it takes to take back what he believes belongs to him, all because of one fateful night that fizzled their life-long friendship and brought so much guilt to Adonis. The film being written by Ryan and Keenan Coogler does an excellent job at making you identify with either side and unveil dark truths about each other up until you get to the final showdown where all of it pays off in something so white-knuckled since the ending of Warrior.
While the film isn’t perfect as it does suffer from a repeated elements from the prior outings and missed opportunities for a couple of familiar faces that could’ve been executed better, it can’t be understated how much of a terrific movie that Creed III is. The boxing matches well-choreographed, and even at times artistic, particularly in the end fight scene illustrating the psychology between the two lead heavyweights, the acting is top-notch and the narrative works on its own while paying tribute to legacies of the Rocky and Creed generations. If this is what we’ve come to expect from Jordan’s abilities as a director, it’ll be curious to see what else he has up his sleeve this time.
Rating: 4/5
