Creed III: Film Review
Not content with just starring in and producing the Creed movies, Michael B. Jordan has seriously stepped up his responsibility by becoming a director for the first time.
In the five years since Creed II, Adonis ‘Donnie’ Creed (Jordan) has retired from boxing and is running a gym and fight promotion business with his trainer Duke (Wood Harris). He is now married to singer/producer Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and they have a huge house in Los Angeles and an adorable daughter named Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Life seems good. All that changes when Damian ‘Dame’ Anderson (Jonathan Majors), his childhood best friend and a former boxing prodigy, gets out of prison and pays him a visit.
Generally speaking, boxing movies are rather predictable and it’s hard to deliver a real surprise. With Creed III, it’s very obvious where it’s going because images of the boxing match between Creed and Dame are plastered all over the marketing materials. You know Creed will come out of retirement after three years to take down his friend-turned-rival, but it takes 90 minutes to get there. Knowing where the story is going takes the tension out of it somewhat. Thankfully, there’s a greater sense of stakes in the grudge match because you don’t completely know which way it’s going to go (you can give it a good guess though).
Despite its predictability, Jordan, following on from Ryan Coogler and Steve Caple Jr., has directed a solid entry into the Creed franchise. The fights are cleanly executed and exciting to watch. He adds his own stamp on the ring sequences by using slow motion to really accentuate some of the most brutal blows, with the action moving so slowly you can see the skin rippling from the impact. It’s effective but I’m glad it wasn’t used too much.
While most people come for the boxing, my favourite aspect of the Creed films is the family drama. I love his family unit and that Bianca is successful in her own right. As we learned in the last film, Amara is deaf so the family now use sign language all the time, but also, Bianca has experienced her own hearing problems and Creed’s stepmother Mary-Anne (Phylicia Rashad) is unwell. So he has got plenty going on before Dame reopens old wounds.
Jordan and Thompson have amazing chemistry and I fully believe them as a couple – Adonis and Bianca are so great together. But the star of the show is Davis-Kent as Amara, she is so sassy and adorable and a delight to watch. Majors, who is on a roll at the moment, also stands out as the unnerving villain with a very big chip on his shoulder. It’s a shame Sylvester Stallone isn’t in this but I didn’t miss him too much.
Creed III is a solid sports drama that shows promise for Jordan’s future as a director.
In cinemas from Friday 3rd March