Arguably, Creed III is the best of the Creed movies and likely my favouite of the entire series other than the original Rocky. It's not perfect, a lot of the plot is relies on unrealistic coincidences to get it to the places it wants to go, but when it gets there it delivers. It is stunning to watch and like I & II many of its shortcomings are overcome by the power of the performances. It moves along at a pretty significant clip helping to gloss over some of the story's less believable bits. Overall it is a pretty damn good time.
Majors does the most heavy lifting here. His screen presence is amazing and what he does with his rather thinly drawn character is impressive. I really appreciated the way his story forces the character of Adonis Creed to face up to some realities, repositioning him from how we have seen him before in the series.
Jordan on the other hand shows off that he has talent behind the camera as well as in front of it. He has made a rather impressive looking film and a very entertaining one as well. I really enjoyed a lot of the choices he made, including ensuring that most of the sign language (and there is a lot) is visible and readable on screen, and the way he frames his two characters against each other in ways that highlight what is going on for them. This film, like the previous two films, often explore the way certain kinds of masculinity force men to address and process emotional issues through physicality. He drills deep into this here in interesting ways. There is a scene near the end of the film during their boxing match where Jordan strips everything away, the crowds, the score, the sounds, and just has them have a wordless conversation through their fight that is rather spectacular.
Perhaps what I appreciated most was the film's exploration of how we get to where we are and what it costs us. All of this is packaged in an energetic and visually exciting film. And I'm excited to see if Jordan is going to direct more films and what he may choose to do next.
Creed III
Starring: Michael B Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Phylicia Rashad
Director: Michael B Jordan
Writers: Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin
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