[Review] Creed III (7/10)

 

Title - Creed III
Production - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Chartoff-Winkler Productions
Starring - Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Mila Davis-Kent, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Jose Benavidez, Selenis Leyva, Jacob Duran
Writer - Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin
Director - Michael B. Jordan
Release - 3 March 2023

It's funny how the first directorial by Michael B. Jordan had better fight scenes than the dramatic ones. Probably because the fight scenes weren't all Jordan.

But still, the only reason the fight scenes worked as well as they did was because of how the story built-up the characters of Jordan and Jonathan Majors.

This was Majors' best work yet. Immediately when he showed up, leaning on Creed's car, he was intimidating even without trying. And after he became the clear antagonist, I wouldn't want to be 10 feet away from him.

Unfortunately, when we were in the ring, that's when the movie soared. But when we're outside of it, the scenes were stitched together shakily. The uncertainty of a clear directorial vision came through the cracks because there were a few moments I didn't know where the story was going. Especially with the subplot with Creed's daughter, played beautifully by Mila Davis-Kent; that was never resolved.

One thing I was impressed was how Jordan and Thompson really committed to play parents to a deaf daughter. The way they signed, it felt very real - they had the "frustration" of not being able to voice out but had to wait for their hands to do the talking, so that was impressive and nice to witness.

I also didn't like the direction the story took for Phylicia Rashad's character because it really made no sense that Rocky was absent. And that's another tiny, unfortunate, mishap. The absence of Rocky was felt especially in certain moments where it should have been Rocky talking. And Wood Harris did the best he could to fill that void whenever necessary, and he did great, but it just didn't make sense not to have Sylvester Stallone in this.

There was also something missing in the storytelling. The way how Creed decided to come out of retirement and with no objection from his wife at all, felt very unnatural. And then there was him getting back into fighting form, the training montage; they didn't feel convincing. 

But one thing was clear, Creed is now a bona fide franchise that is able to stand on its own with Jordan leading it.