Creed III (Review)
Michael B. Jordan delivers a knockout trilogy film that shines brightest on its characters and direction. We finally enter a world without our franchise character, Rocky, and although his presence is missed, the fresh story in this film outweighs the appearance of the Italian Stallion. The characters we have in this current saga have their own legs to stand on.
Despite decades of movies, the Rocky franchise rarely feels like there’s too many characters to keep up with. Creed III introduces a character that immediately feels fleshed out due to the acting and the relation to our titular character. Jonathan Majors embodies a character with such grit and deep emotions that, at times, the audience relates more to than Adonis. We’ve all fallen victim to jealousy and entitlement in our lives. It would’ve been easy to write his character off as a blanket villain from Adonis’ past. Instead, Damian becomes our unrealized dreams, untapped potential, and ambition wrapped into a hulk. This theme is also present in other characters such as Bianca. She clearly has some level of regret or untapped potential due to not realizing her dreams as a singer because of her hearing disability. Although she handles it in productive and healthy ways such as producing and encouraging the next generation of singers, Damian has a juggernaut, will-do-anything attitude towards life to seek his revenge against the world/Adonis.
The franchise makes a bold decision not to include Rocky in this story. Although I agreed that the story should continue without him and make the focus on Adonis, it felt to me that the movie was missing the “heart” that made the franchise the global phenomenon it is today. We rooted for Rocky as a down-on-his-luck, gentle giant even when he comes into a load of fame and money later on in the series. Adonis has the fruits of his labor in this movie as well, but it was harder to sympathize with his journey. We’ve seen him face his demons before and it may be that Michael B. Jordan’s performance is more nuianced, but it was harder to root for Adonis than it was for Rocky. We’ll see what it’s like for future movies. This is going to sound crazy, but I hope more bad things happen to Adonis, so we can see what he’s made of.
Overall, the movie is a must watch for all fans of sport movies. It was a real treat to watch in IMAX as well, so I would highly recommend that to those wanting to step into the ring with Adonis.
8/10
