“Creed III” proves to be the champion of its class
Raider Times photo / Courtesy Eli Ade / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.
Michael B. Jordan is the director and star of “Creed III,” which opens March 3, 2023.
March 3, 2023
“Creed III,” the spin-off movie series based on the iconic “Rocky” franchise arrives with its third installment March 3 with star Michael B. Jordan making his directorial debut, and proving to be the best Creed movie yet. (And I mean it!)
Adonis Creed (Jordan) is still the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He decides to take a break from boxing to spend more time with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and his young daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). But when a childhood friend, Dame (Jonathan Majors) resurfaces after spending more than two decades in prison asking for a new opportunity in life, Adonis will have to confront the ghosts of his past. The film’s sweetest moments are the ones in which the characters use ASL to communicate with Amara – which has a great and lovely performance by Mila Davis-Kent, a deaf child actress.
One problem sport movies (including Creed’s previous movies) usually face is the poor script. But “Creed III” positively surprised me for having a real story, full of tension going through different aspects of the protagonist’s life. The film carries good moments of family drama while giving Adonis an actual good reason for him to take a fight instead of the generic “I want to be the best” arch of story.
One possible reason for this improvement is that the screenplay was co-written by emerging writer Zach Baylin, who also wrote the 2021 movie “King Richard,” which is also known for being a good family drama. So if you saw “King Richard,” you might see some resemblances to it.
Something I’m a very fan of is when movies use American Sign Language. In Creed’s franchise, Bianca has progressive hearing loss, and, for that reason, her daughter was born completely deaf. In the film industry, people usually don’t like representing people with disabilities because a lot of people believe it is “limiting” and the movie becomes “harder to be made,” when in reality, it is the opposite and “Creed III” shows that very well. The film’s sweetest moments are the ones in which the characters use ASL to communicate with Amara – which has a great and lovely performance by Davis-Kent, a deaf child actress.
Unfortunately I would say that this movie will only to appeal sports or boxing movie fans. Even though the movie has some interesting deviations compared with other movies of the genre, it is still very cliche, using a lottttttttttttt of training footage that some in the audiences might find very boring while others might find very cool.
Another hundred-times-used cliche of fighting movies here is the “Oh, they’re fighting in the ring, but they’re also fighters in their day-to-day lives.” That, too, can be very boring to some people, while very emotional to some others.
But to “Creed” enjoyers, this film will be a blast. With great use of sound and cinematography (specially in the fight entrance scenes) and good acting performances, “Creed III” does not disappoint, and the great fighting scenes makes the movie one of the best of the genre this year.
–March 3, 2023–
