Out of all the franchises, I thought we didn’t need back, anything Rocky related was at the top of my imaginary list. That was until Creed (2015) came out, and it was a perfect boxing movie. I was on board with everything that movie did, and even the sequel Creed II (2018) was almost perfect (I rated it 4.5/5*). And what Creed III confirmed is the quality is slowly declining with each sequel, but this is still a great movie worth seeing, albeit it has some Major(s) problems.
Just as I did with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023, my review here), let’s address the elephant in the room. According to many allegations, Majors, who was on track to be “the next big thing” in Hollywood, is an abuser, allegedly. Nothing has been proven yet, just many, many things have come out since this movie came out, and it looks bad for him and his career. The long-time readers know I am one of those “let’s separate the art from the artist” types, so I won’t and didn’t “deduct” any points for him in this movie. And despite him being the best part of the third Ant-Man movie, here I thought… he was fine. I thought he was great in some quiet scenes, but in others, he came across as a bit all over the place; I didn’t believe him and thought he was almost over-acting (yes, that’s a word, don’t bother googling it;-)).
This movie was predictably surprising. I know that sounds contradictory, so let me explain. Creed III‘s biggest weakness by far was its predictability. And even in terms of a boxing movie, this one was outrageously predictable. You knew what would happen, what characters will or will not die just to move the story along… And yet, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed… the family element?! In a boxing movie? Yep, I was as surprised as you are reading it.
This movie is Michael B. Jordan‘s directorial debut, and I thought he did a fine job with two exceptions where he did a phenomenal job. One was the family dynamic, and the other was the last fight, which I will address soon. You can tell Michael cared about portraying the Creed family faithfully, post his retirement, so we get a bit more of Tessa Thompson and their daughter, Mila Davis-Kent. Tessa doesn’t have much to do, but her role is crucial because it serves as a reminder of how to deal with the cards you have been given (her character losing her hearing and not being able to do the thing she loves, sing and perform). Her influence on Michael’s character and her scene with Jonathan Majors talking about that tells you a lot without being “showy” about it.
My favourite scenes, however, were when Michael interacted with his daughter and how you could tell she adored him. Her story arc of wanting to fight for herself and her wanting her dad to teach her could have gone the usual “violence is not an answer” route we are all accustomed to, and it goes there for a bit, but it ultimately ends somewhere else. And their scenes together felt authentic and personal, and I wished we would have spent more time with them. I really hope Michael B. Jordan will direct some family drama at some point because this is where I saw his true potential; those scenes simply worked and were magical.
As far as the rest of the movie, it was a pretty straightforward ride until we reached the “silent” fight. And that is when I got convinced Michael has a promising future because he did something I have not seen done, maybe ever. To understand the moment is about everything that happened in their past and how they only see each other and not the crowd in that round… chef’s kiss. And even the scene after, where it goes someplace different than I thought it would… I can’t wait to see what Michael directs next.
And that was the most baffling thing about Creed III for me. How you can have most of the movie be so predictable in every aspect, yet somehow you nail the family moments, and then the last 20 minutes or so, you deliver something great. I am not saying the stuff before was bad, no. It was just your stereotypical “a hero’s past comes back to bite him in the ass” concept, and if it weren’t for those family moments, I would have been bored. You could argue that this is the most personal, most intimate out of the Creed films. And I really hope this is the end for Creed and that they have learned their lessons about too many sequels from the Rocky franchise and let Creed be a trilogy because this was a fitting end.
Overall, Creed III is a great film with a few exceptional elements that show Michael B. Jordan’s promise as a director. I admired Michael’s and Jonathan’s physiques; I loved the family moments and the last 20 minutes of this film. Everything around it you have seen before, but given we spent time with some likeable actors like Tessa, Michael and Mila, I didn’t mind too much. I hope they will stop here, and this will be regarded as a great trilogy nobody believed we needed.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke