 When I watch a Rocky or Creed movie, there's one feeling I must have after these films are over. One benchmark feeling that I must elicit after the credits start to roll. And that is the feeling of hitting the gym, working out, bettering myself. And I'm happy to say Creed III once again delivers that feeling, baby. Let's talk about it. Michael B. Jordan is back as Creed III. No, the three is not part of the name. That's silly. It's a Donis Creed. Son of Apollo Creed from the original Rocky franchise. I don't know why I'm explaining. We're three movies deep. If you haven't been on the Creed train so far, you're probably not going to jump by now. And honestly, it's a shame on you. If you like the Rocky movies, I see no reason not to dip your toe in the ring with the new champ. And while Creed III is definitely a continuation of the story, it also feels the most isolated from all of the Rocky verses I'm now calling it for that one time only. This, I believe, and don't quote me on this, is Michael B. Jordan's first directorial debut, which means he hasn't directed anything prior to this. He did a great first job. This is a very pretty looking film. Good music, good acting, good visuals, like all around. It's solid. Now, I will say there is one tiny moment that lasts for about a minute or two where he tries to go a little bit too artsy, a little bit too outside of the comfort zone, I think for him. Maybe save some of those ideas for the third or fourth attempt at directing a movie. Don't just jump in right away, guns blazing. That moment was really ugly. You'll know it when it hits. You'll know it when you see it. Like, oh, we entered green screen world and things just don't look very good. It looks like a completely different film going on. Anyway, outside of that, Creed 3 is a fantastic, fantastic follow-up. Here's where I stand on things. Creed, a great phoenix rising from the ashes of the Rocky franchise. It's back. It's stronger than ever. We got the Italian stallion in there tipping the hat, training Adonis. Good start. Creed 2 brings back the Russians. Doesn't quite hit the notes I think it's meaning to, and it feels a little flat when all is said and done. I still enjoy Creed 2. I know a lot of people didn't really, didn't really feel that one at all. And Creed 3, I think, really takes things in interesting directions. Yes, it definitely has shades of other Rocky plots involved. I was worried going into this, that we were going to get a Rocky 5 situation where you have the down on his luck up-and-comer who's ready to take on the champ, ready to prove himself. On top of that we have the old retired dog who still has something left in the tank and doesn't want his buddy to get out of line. He's got to check him. And that's exactly what this film's about. But unlike Rocky 5, Creed 3 isn't just surface-level crap. It goes deeper. It goes into past trauma. It goes into childhood. Trying to push things down, not communicating with words, but with your fists. I need to rewatch Creed to see where I stack things up, but right now Creed 3 seems like the real winner for me. This is a great movie. I have very minor issues. Besides that one weird scene that he directed later, there's also a very forced subplot with Creed's daughter. You've seen it in the trailer. She's punching a little bit. And all I'm thinking is, yeah, what we're doing here right now is we're setting up female Creed. Strong female lead for the future. Say it with me. Strong female lead. And for the boxing film franchise, it's about time. Female Creed fighting movie. I don't have a problem with it, but the way that they're trying to get there seems very forced. And I know Michael B. Jordan wrote this, but I wouldn't be surprised or shocked if some studio executives were like, hey, can we get a female boxer in this? Can we somehow shoehorn this into the plot for later on in like Creed 8 or 9? Or maybe it was entirely Michael B. Jordan's decision. Fair enough. Whatever. It didn't work for me. Outside of that, what we have is a decently paced film. It does slow down in the middle, kind of like Creed 2 did. And a lot of the Rocky movies, let's be honest, lose a lot of their steam around that middle mark where we have to have the rise, the fall, the rebuild, the rise again, the possible fall again. You just, it's all kind of paint by numbers, but it's the performances and some of the dialogue that really sets this one apart. I thought Creed 3 was sharply written, very sharply acted. The kid actors, they casted for this. Man, the one looks exactly like Michael B. Jordan, which probably to be fair, Michael B. Jordan had a lot to say in. He's like, let me look at kid photos of myself. Not you, not you, not you. Yep, you're in. You're in. We'll put you, we'll put you in the maybe pile. The villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantum Shitium, is in this so much better here. Jonathan Majors kills it in this performance as Damien, the long lost friend from the past, out of prison, hungry for that title. Killer performance. I loved every scene he was in. He just, he commands it. He's got a presence to him. You don't really know what's happening inside that nugget of his, but I don't think you want to know all the same. The boxing scenes in this have never looked better. After watching this movie, the next day I went and watched Rocky Balboa, which is Rocky 6, which is a very, very, very slow burn until the final 30 minutes, which are great. Not a bad movie. Not a bad little gem right there. Some really good dialogue in that, too. And very motivational, by the way. But it just, it's night and day. Stallone in Rocky 6 goes for this more gritty, natural look. It's got shaky cam that was really trendy back when that film came out. But man, it's just polar opposites. Creed 3 is just gorgeous. The visuals when they're boxing are just slick. There's slow motion akin to what you would see in one of those Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr., where he's kind of laying up his plan of attack and then goes into slow motion into the side of the fucking ribs. Ooh, it's good stuff. Great boxing scenes in that. And there's a good amount of them, and they play with the way these guys fight. I love O'Damien. He's just kind of loosey-goosey with it, because he's in the streets, you know? He's been boxing his whole life, but not necessarily in the ring. So he's like, he's like hitting shit down with the side of his arm. He's elbowing people in the face. He takes hits, and then he like sees the shot coming. He throws a punch under the side of the arm. I want to hit the gym now. Let's talk music. There's black people in it, so naturally it's rap music, because that's what we know in Hollywood. They don't listen to anything else. It's so ridiculous. But it works. We got some Dre in here. We got some, I don't know if Kendrick's in this one. I don't know if we have Kendrick Lamar, but we don't really have the Rocky theme. We don't really have Rocky. In fact, we don't have Rocky. This isn't a spoiler. This is a confirmation of what people were worried about going in. No sly, no Stallone, no show, no mention. I think there is one, one singular line of dialogue about Apollo and Rocky fighting back in the day has nothing to do with the present. We don't know where he's at. They didn't kill him. He didn't go on sabbatical. He's not on a holiday. He didn't get married off somewhere. He didn't win the lottery and moved to, you know, I don't know. He's just MIA all around and it's very bizarre. It's bizarre to have him as kind of this fatherish figure in the last two movies, this guy that they've had a connection together and then he's just nowhere to be found. And it sucks because I know that there's shenanigans off-camera. I know that Stallone and MGM or whoever the hell owns Creed, I don't even know, honestly, but they've had studio rights issues. Stallone doesn't own the character. He's been getting pushed out of it, but he also said he doesn't want anything to do with it anymore. So it's just a whole lot of he said, he said nonsense. All I know is the final product suffers because there is a missing element here. Now I am perfectly fine. And I think they probably should have done this in Creed 2 of Sunsetting Stallone, Sunsetting Rocky. I mean, my God, the guy's 70 some now it's fine to leave and hand over the belt because this is a franchise that can go on for, you know, until the end of time, but they didn't give him like a goodbye. Just give me some closure. That bothered me. I had to chip in my shoulder the whole film because of that, but go in with that away and then I think you'll enjoy it a lot more. Long story short, Creed 3 is great. I was very worried going into this. I left very happy. That's it. That's what I, that's what I say. So let me know what you say in the comments below. Did you like Creed 3? Have you seen it yet? Are you planning on it? Are you boycotting? Cause no sly, no, no bye. Let me know. Like the video if you had a good time and please think about subscribing if you haven't. I post tons of movie and sometimes TV show content each and every week. Love to have you stick around. Take care.