Notable Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson,
Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Mila Davis-Kent, Jose Benavidez
Jr, Selenis Leyva, Florian Munteanu
One step. One punch. One round at a time.
This mantra from the first Creed makes a brief
appearance in the final act of Creed III. It’s a smooth callback to the
original and it’s a small reminder of just how far this sub-series within the Rocky
franchise has come in three films. Yes, it’s a phrase that has stuck with me
since the first film, but hearing Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed mutter it
under his breath prior to the big final match was a stark reminder of why this
series has had potency in recent years. For a franchise with almost 50 years of
material, Creed III is tackling legacy in such a smart way that even
bringing back the mantra as thematic is potent.
However, the problem that plagued the previous sequel was
that the Creed series was still living in the shadow of its past. Creed
II was less a sequel to its predecessor and more of a sequel to Rocky IV.
Fun, yes, but it’s a problem that Creed III needed to address. Creed
needed to step out from the shadows of the past and into the future, both as a
character and as a film series.
This is the first reason why Creed III finds success.
The series attempts to alter the course by pulling as far away from Rocky
as possible. Yes, Rocky’s mantra makes an appearance and Sly Stallone’s Italian
Stallion is mentioned briefly, but this entry is making the intelligent
maneuver of leaning away from Rocky’s lore as a basis and finding its own lore
to create. Although it is still hard to beat the coming-of-age and rise to
glory of the original Creed, Creed III is a large step up from
its predecessor and finds an incredible balance of entertainment, heart, and a
new vision for the franchise's future.