Creed III – Film Review

Still dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed is thriving in his career and family life. When Damian, a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces after serving time in prison, he’s eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian — a fighter who has nothing to lose.

Despite having absolutely loved the first two films in the Creed series, nothing could have prepared me for just how shocked I was upon seeing Michael B. Jordan‘s Creed III. While it certainly shares a ton of the same DNA as the previous films, it also feels like a totally different movie than one we are used to seeing in this franchise.

It’s a boxing movie, sure, but it’s also so much more than that. The vast majority of this film tends to focus on the relationship between Adonis Creed and his childhood best friend Damian Anderson, who has always dreamed of being a famous boxing champion.

The amazing ten-minute opening scene shows just how close Adonis and Damian were. They were like brothers to each other and they always loved hanging out with one another, even if they were just doing mundane things. One night, the two youngsters sneak out to a boxing match where Damian is supposed to compete.

Adonis is appalled when he sees Damian knock his opponent out in just one blow. Not only does this give us some excellent character development for Damian, but it makes him ten times more terrifying when he’s an adult and you see him in the boxing ring.

My favorite parts of this movie weren’t even the fighting scenes, but rather the scenes with our protagonists just interacting with each other. In this film, Adonis and Bianca’s daughter Amara is quite a bit older and she wants to be a boxer one day, just like her father. However, this causes concern to settle in for the parents when she gets in trouble at school for fighting a student.

Meanwhile, Bianca has reduced her career to just producing tracks only instead of singing because her hearing condition has gotten worse. There are a lot of storylines going on in Creed III and yet none of them feel like they are taking away from the central story of these two childhood friends.

This movie is Jordan’s directorial debut and it’s absolutely glorious. The fact that Creed III is this good is just a testament to how good of a director Jordan is. Everything feels like it’s in complete control here and the script from Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin is a thing of beauty.

This film also has what may very well be the best fight scenes in the entire Rocky franchise. They resemble lots of anime fights, interestingly. Some may find them to be a bit over-the-top, but I found them to be incredibly intense, visceral, and shockingly violent. There’s one scene in the third act that blew me away.

After seeing the movie and really thinking about it long and hard, I came to the conclusion that there was absolutely nothing I disliked about Creed III. It’s a total riot from beginning to end, and if you care about any of these characters emotionally, it’s a film that’s sure to put you through the ringer.

With a tightly-written script, bold direction from Michael B. Jordan, excellent character development, and intense fights, Creed III is a total knockout.