Nerdly » ‘Creed 3’ Blu-ray Review

18th May2023

‘Creed 3’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Mila Davis-Kent, Jose Benavidez, Florian Munteanu, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Spence Moore II | Written by Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin | Directed by Michael B. Jordan

Creed star Michael B. Jordan steps behind the camera for this second sequel to Ryan Coogler’s 2015 boxing smash hit. This time around, the Rocky spin-off (of sorts) has decided it doesn’t need Rocky anymore, but it compensates with an exciting role for Jonathan Majors, who WAS on the fast track to superstardom thanks to his role as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Things have changed, however, since Creed 3′s original debut…

The third film in the Creed franchise (co-written by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, with a story credit for Ryan Coogler) finds Adonis (Jordan) living the high life in Los Angeles with his music producer wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and adorable young deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent, after having retired from boxing at the top of his game. However, Adonis’ blissful life is shattered when Damian ‘Dame’ Anderson (Majors) – a figure from his past – resurfaces, having served the last 18 years in jail for an incident that involved young Adonis (Thaddeus J. Mixson).

A promising boxer before his jail sentence cut short his career, Dame guilt-trips Adonis into giving him a shot at a title fight, taking on the current heavyweight champion, Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez), a fighter who’s being managed by Adonis’ team. However, when Dame reveals his true colours, Adonis realises he’ll have to step back into the ring to put things right.

It’s fair to say that the Creed threequel is something of a mixed bag. The script feels particularly weak, especially when it comes to depicting the inciting incident that sent Dame to prison in the first place. If anything, it feels like the flashback sequences have been heavily edited, and the exact nature of what Adonis is supposed to feel guilty about is never properly explored as a result. If you had to bet, it seems like he was originally supposed to have killed someone, and Dame took the blame, but that’s never explicitly stated in the script and we’re supposed to believe that Dame served 18 years just for pulling a gun and having some priors.

On a similar note, the depiction of Dame’s character is all over the place, as if the film can’t quite decide how much of a villain it needs him to be. The result is very uneven, with weird scenes that come out of nowhere – e.g. Dame threatening to take everything from Adonis, while at a random beach party, but the script does nothing to follow up on that.

Having said that, the actors are terrific, with all three of Jordan, Thompson and Majors comfortably transcending the limitations of the script and delivering electrifying performances that keep you glued to the screen. There’s also delightful support from young Mila Davis-Kent, who signs her entire performance and generates touching father-daughter chemistry with Jordan, especially when he secretly trains her to fight, in a subplot that could have used more screen time.

On top of that, Jordan’s direction of the fight scenes is extremely impressive, achieving a graceful fluidity in the ducking-and-weaving moves that are a joy to watch. In addition, the punches have real weight to them (aided by some excellent sound design) and the editing makes every blow count.

Indeed, the only real issue is that Jordan opts for a bizarre directorial choice towards the end of the film – it’s meant to put Creed and Dame in a mano-a-mano world of their own, oblivious to their surroundings, but it lasts too long and doesn’t really come off, compromising the thrills of the final act in the process.

In short, Creed 3 has its fair share of flaws, but the performances and the fight scenes ultimately see it through. Will we get Creed IV? Only time will tell.