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Creed III (2023)

I think the idea of doing a spin-off of the popular Rocky series was always going to be risky given how popular the series was. The first one worked really well as there was a nice dynamic between Sylvester Stallone and Michael B Jordan. The second one was a disappointment because it felt like a mess due to the fact they didn’t seem to know what they wanted the film to be beside Rocky 4.5. 

This instalment is perhaps the most intriguing because not only is it directed by Michael B. Jordan himself but it doesn't feature Rocky. Not only does it not feature him but there is no mention. Nothing. If this was the first film in the series you saw, you wouldn’t know that Rocky was integral to the story. Not sure if there was a falling out somewhere along the process but they could have put in a throw away line to cover his absence. I know that most people might not be too bothered and the plot wasn't affected by his absence but bearing in mind that the series wouldn’t exist without Rocky or that Creed would be in the position without Rocky does seem like a snub that could easily have been put right. 


I don’t know if Michael B. Jordan has directed before but I was impressed with his directing in this. There were a couple of shots that I thought looked really good and were very artistic and perhaps might put some people off but not me. There was one shot where Creed is looking to the right side of the screen and ?? is looking to the left but there is a wall between them and I liked that and thought that some care had been put into shots like that. The boxing scenes are just as impressive and again there are some of those that have had care put into them.


Despite this quite seismic departure from the norm, I still enjoyed the film. The friendship that became a rivalry was done very well and truth be told I wrote this review in May 2024 and so after Jonathan Majors got into his legal troubles so the chances of Jonathan Majors and Creed having a sort of Rocky/Apollo friendship is pretty much dead in the water unless they recast. I thought that this was a marked improvement on the second one and on par with the first one. Hopefully Creed IV continues the trend.
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