{"id":57425,"date":"2023-03-06T13:39:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T18:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57425"},"modified":"2023-03-06T13:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T18:39:49","slug":"creed-iii-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/03\/creed-iii-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Creed III \u2013 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            As popular as it is to complain about Hollywood\u2019s lazy reliance on reboots, re-imaginings, spinoffs, and legacy sequels to older properties, all evidence suggests that \u201cRocky\u201d continuation \u201cCreed\u201d has worked out for the best. I\u2019m not just talking about the first \u201cCreed\u201d from 2015, but the entire \u201cCreed\u201d sub-franchise, including the first sequel from 2018, and of course, new movie \u201cCreed III.\u201d These movies have done well creatively (all above 80% with both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes) and commercially, with the first two making over $100 million at the domestic box office, and the third almost certain to follow suit after a $58 million opening weekend. Keeping in mind that I\u2019m calling the whole trilogy is a success, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s out of line to say that \u201cCreed III\u201d is the weakest entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Michael B. Jordan is back as boxer Adonis \u201cDonnie\u201d Creed, son of the legendary Apollo Creed. He\u2019s certainly done an excellent job of carrying on his late father\u2019s legacy, even surpassing it in many ways. He\u2019s retired at the top of his game and is an attentive father to Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), his daughter with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson). Apollo wasn\u2019t much of a father, with Donnie not even knowing about him until after his death. He lived in a group home until he was a teenager, when he was taken in by Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), Apollo\u2019s wife. He mostly left his old life behind, save for maintaining a friendship with aspiring boxer Damian Anderson. An altercation a few years later saw a gun-toting Damian arrested, while Donnie fled and was allowed to continue on his path to greatness. Now \u201cDame\u201d (Jonathan Majors) is out of prison and looking to make a name for himself as a boxer. The odds are against him, given his age and record, but at least he has a connection with the former champion \u2013 a connection he\u2019s not afraid to exploit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Donnie tries to be helpful, but reasonable, getting his old friend sparring work with current champion Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez Jr.), despite the protests of his business partner Duke (Wood Harris). But Dame isn\u2019t satisfied with sparring. He wants a shot at the title. He even sabotages a highly-promoted upcoming fight to create an opening for a Rocky-like underdog challenge. And after he takes the belt from Felix, there\u2019s the matter of the personal score to settle with Donnie. Let\u2019s just say the two aren\u2019t eager to talk it out. Cue training montages and pageantry of the big fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The good news is that Dame is a particularly well-written and acted character. It isn\u2019t far-fetched that Donnie has been keeping this skeleton in his closet through two films, as he\u2019s clearly been struggling to leave various traumas behind. And I was much happier with the talented Majors as the villain in this movie than I was with him as the bland Kang in \u201cAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania\u201d a few weeks ago. The scenes where he plays head games with Jordan are the film\u2019s highlights, along with emotionally-charged scenes involving Jordan, Thompson, and Rashad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The bad news is that there aren\u2019t a whole lot of other things that work about \u201cCreed III.\u201d Thompson gets an arc where she encourages nonviolence, but nothing ever comes of it. It seems like the whole world of title contenders is limited to Donnie\u2019s circle of friends in L.A. A death scene feels wedged in because there\u2019s an unofficial rule that these movies have to kill off one important character per entry. A gimmick used for the final fight scene is laughably heavy-handed, and I don\u2019t mean in the good way that\u2019s advantageous in boxing. Plus there\u2019s no Rocky to be found, as Sylvester Stallone has had a falling-out with this franchise. Director Ryan Coogler is out as well, though Jordan himself does an admirable job of carrying the franchise to a satisfying conclusion. But I think \u201cCreed\u201d needs to end here before it loses the upper hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreed III\u201d is rated PG-13 for intense sports action, violence and some language. Its running time is 116 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             As popular as it is to complain about Hollywood\u2019s lazy reliance on reboots, re-imaginings, spinoffs, and legacy sequels to older properties, all evidence suggests that \u201cRocky\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":57426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2207],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57428,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57425\/revisions\/57428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}