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Oct 19, 2022 · Creed 3 star and director Michael B. Jordan explains why the franchise takes a seven-year time jump. Jordan debuted as aspiring boxing champion Adonis Creed in 2015’s Rocky franchise entry. He then reprised the character in 2018’s successful sequel Creed II. Now Jordan is ready to take the next step in his own career as a filmmaker ...
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By Clint Gage
Updated: Mar 5, 2023 8:35 am
Posted: Feb 24, 2023 3:00 am
Creed III opens in theaters on March 3, 2023.
The Creed wing of the Rocky franchise has always been about legacy. Adonis Creed’s journey has been one of stepping out from shadows cast by previous generations. With Creed III, though, Michael B. Jordan casts a shadow of his own in his directorial debut, slipping into the director’s chair with the confidence of a heavyweight champ stepping into the ring. It sets us up with everything we’ve come to expect from the series, and knocks us out with an exciting new direction.
One of the difficulties facing Creed III from the jump was how to make another entry into this series feel necessary. Between Rocky and Creed this is the ninth film across 50 years. How do you add to a legacy like that? The answer, as it turns out, is to fully commit to the rebranding of the Rocky series around a new character that started in 2015’s Creed. If these films have been about passing the torch, the third one finds both Michael B. Jordan and his character taking the torch and running with it.
Just like Adonis himself, director Ryan Coogler proved with Creed that this new iteration of the Rocky franchise could stand on its own and forge its own legacy. Creed II, however, can’t seem to let the past go, abandoning the exciting new path blazed by Coogler in favor of evoking what’s come before, with undeniably diminished results. The return ...
Read the full Creed II review
So, yes, of course that means there are some great training montages set to an energizing soundtrack, but it also means we get to see the franchise evolve a little in ways that make sense. It’s a savvy choice for a directorial debut and it shows on screen. On top of an established formula that he can build around, Creed is a character and world he’s obviously intimately familiar with.
The characters around Donnie are all effective foils for his struggles.
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Rocky vs Apollo from Rocky (1976)
Rocky vs. Ivan Drago from Rocky IV
Adonis Creed's first match - the one-take fight from Creed
Adonis vs. Viktor Drago 2 from Creed II
Other - tell us in the comments
Jonathan Majors as Dame Anderson, though, presents the biggest challenge and most fascinating addition to the Creed-verse yet. To start with, Majors continues his streak of being the most interesting person on screen no matter what he’s in. The chemistry between him and Jordan, made of old bonds and old pain, is the backbone of Creed III. It’s also notable that he doesn’t feel like a pseudo-retcon in a “Drago had a son, too” sort of way. Dame is the part of Donnie’s life he won’t talk about. He’s the past Donnie must deal with to have a future, the character flaw that’s preventing him from being able to fully accept the new phase of his life. While the resolution of their story by the end doesn’t seem like quite the punch Creed III was hoping to land, it’s Majors’ ability to alternate between a well-intentioned old friend and insidious new rival that makes Dame one of the most original antagonists in the franchise.
Of course, a crucial part of the franchise has always been the fight choreography. How the camera interacts with the fighting has changed over the years, but at the end of the day, what is a boxing movie without rad punching? And for Rocky and Creed the fight scenes – the memorable ones, anyway – work on a few levels. They’re brutal and exciting to watch as well as thematically meaningful to the characters and the story. Without Rocky whispering lessons into Donnie’s ear between rounds, explicitly telling us what this fight is about and what is at stake emotionally, Jordan renders the fight scenes and their themes with fantastical visuals instead.
The climactic match between Donnie and Dame is built on a lifetime of pent-up feelings, anger and guilt, and the sense that what needs settling is between the two of them and nobody else. Visually, Jordan takes us there in a way the franchise has never come close to. He may get docked some points for overreaching, but you can’t say that he pulled any punches with his portrayal of the final fight. It’s a wholly new energy for the Rocky-Creed series, and love it or hate it, the visual flare at minimum makes total sense with the characters and story and sets it apart from the eight movies that came before it.
Creed III is a confident directorial debut from star Michael B. Jordan that shows he’s already achieved a mastery of the formula that’s brought the series so much success. An engrossing new visual dynamic to the fight scenes and a fantastic antagonist in Jonathan Majors’ Dame Anderson elevate it in the legacy of a franchise that’s no stranger to mi...
- Clint Gage
For news, discussion and more about Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise. Assassin's Creed 3 has the longest prologue of any game I have played. The game is great but damm it takes long until the world opens up and you get your Assassin robes. Everything until then feels like one tutorial after another and it goes on for like 5 full sequences.
Mar 3, 2023 · Creed 3’s Ending Meaning Explained. Creed III is about facing one’s past, standing up to it and taking accountability for one’s actions. Throughout the film, Adonis is faced with guilt, fear, and anger. In addition to finally taking responsibility instead of running away like he did as a child, Creed had to work through his feelings ...
- Senior Critic
Jan 6, 2023 · Around the time Creed II was released, various outlets suggested that heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder could play the son of Clubber Lang in Creed III.Although Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester ...
- Ben Sherlock
- Staff Writer
Jun 28, 2024 · There’s a whole load of extra Assassin’s Creed lore in mobile games, books, comics, and movies, but for the purposes of this list, and our sanity, we’re focusing on the 13 main games ...
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Feb 24, 2023 · Creed III, directed by Michael B. Jordan, evolves the Rocky franchise with a new chapter in Adonis' journey, releasing on March 3rd.
