It's been nearly 50 years since we were introduced to the world of Rocky Balboa, now the franchise Stallone created has it's first entry without the Italian Stallion.
In Creed III, Adonis 'Donnie' Creed has retired from boxing, settling into the post-fame life. His wife, Bianca is now a successful record producer and their daughter Amara has taken up an interest in her dad's boxing career of yore.
Things are looking like they might just be alright when a figure from Donnie's past appears. Damien Anderson was a childhood friend of Creed's who is now a free man after spending the better part of two decades in prison. I won't spoil what happened as the mystery of Anderson's incarceration lingers throughout the film, but suffice it to say, he has some unfinished business with Adonis Creed.
Feeling like Creed took the life he was owed, he asks for a shot at the heavyweight title, which is obviously an insane thing to ask when you've never fought professionally, but hey, it's still a Rocky movie.
Well it falls as part of the greater Rocky franchise, which began with the Best Picture-winning Rocky in 1976. After two great films, a good one, an amazing one, a terrible one and an underrated one, the franchise was rebooted by Ryan Coogler with Creed in 2015.
Creed received a Tiny Toons Rocky IV sequel with the son of Apollo Creed taking on the son of Ivan Drago and it was incredible.
Now with the third film, Michael B. Jordan is pulling double duty, playing Adonis Creed and directing the film, well and truly making his mark on the franchise.
I was apprehensive about this film initially, unsure if my interest would still be there without Rocky Balboa, one of my favourite characters ever captured on film, and especially with a first time director. But Michael B. Jordan soon put my fears to rest.
Jordan was determined to make this film stand out from the pack and there's two major (excuse the pun) ways he did that, the visual style and the villain, played by Jonathan Majors.
This is the first sports film ever shot in IMAX format, so naturally the visuals need to rise to a certain level to justify the cost. For a lot of the film it's good, nothing overly remarkable, but by no means anything wrong with the direction. When characters step in to the ring however, is when Jordan is able to show what he's capable of.
He's kept it no secret that he's a big fan of anime, and the film's visual style was influenced by the likes of Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. After over a dozen fights in both the Rocky & the Creed films, it's astonishing that the ninth film can still stand out like this.
The other big influence anime has on the film is the relationship between Donnie & Damien. It's a staple of shōnen anime (the genre of which Jordan is a fan) to have dynamics involving brotherhood be tested and pushed to the limits.
Jonathan Majors is incredible as Anderson. His performance as Kang was the best part of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which wasn't a high bar to clear. Now he's back only two weeks later and is the best part of Creed III, which this time was a much higher bar to clear.
The Rocky villains were often cartoon characters, someone like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV was a straw-man argument for the Soviet Union and represented the US's fears during the Cold War. Tommy Gunn in Rocky V just sucks and so does the movie. Majors's Anderson is a complex character who genuinely feels he deserves the life that Creed had and now that he may be getting a shot at it, you kind of want to see him win.
Creed III is a gripping, exciting entry into one of my top two favourite film franchises and I can't wait for the next entry.
For the record my other favourite film franchise is Scream but who knows when we'll see another one of those.
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