Review of Creed 3
The Torch reviews the new film Creed 3 with spoliers!
Creed 3 movie poster featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photo via MGM under Creative Commons license.
May 3, 2023
Creed 3 is a sports drama that was released on March 3, 2023. It was the first time Michael B. Jordan directed a film in which he also played the lead role, Adonis Creed. The movie is the third installment of the Creed series, which is a spin-off of the Rocky film franchise.
The movie also stars Jonathan Majors as Damian Anderson. The movie was released 5 years after the second film and almost 8 years after the first film.
Plot
The movie follows Adonis Creed’s life after being retired from boxing and having a child with his fiancée, Bianca Taylor Creed . The movie also displays the struggles Adonis and his friend Damian go through in their teenage lives, and how both of them were involved with boxing during their teenage lives. Fast forward years later, Adonis was living the life Damian was dreaming of. After being freed, Adonis invites Damian into the boxing gym he owned so that Damian can train there to resume his boxing career. Adonis and Damian would reunite in the ring and fight.
There’s a theme with dealing with your past and also friends having a falling out and trying to reconcile… it had a great friendship theme.
— Mr. Essig
Review
Coming from a boxing perspective, the movie was better at depicting the sport than the original Rocky movies. ***Creed III did a great job showing the realities of sparring with small details, from showing how the boxers wore clothing covering the body to portray weight cutting. The fight between Adonis and Damian was visually pleasing to watch.
“I had to lean on my love of Japanese animation and the themes of that, to kind of make this movie creatively and visually look different,” Michael B. Jordan explained to The Graham Norton Show.
Despite the visual appeal, there were still minor details that conflicted with the reality of boxing. The fight wasn’t an accurate depiction of boxing because of the excessive amount of power punches- which would have exhausted boxers if it were a real fight- as well as the lack of protecting their heads while punching. One other problem was that Adonis Creed was very lean and shredded for a heavyweight, which would make it difficult to have endurance. Jordan also portrayed a boxer that was supposed to be 200+ pounds, but only weighed around 180 pounds himself.
Overall the movie was really enjoyable to watch and that’s why staff from The Torch gave the movie a solid ranking of an 8.5/10.
