3.5 out of 5 stars
The latest chapter in the Rocky franchise will involve significant shifts within this decades-long series. Firstly, it will be the only film not including Sylvester Stallone in the cast due to differences in the script. The second change will have Michael B. Jordan in his directorial debut, despite the success of the previous chapters being helmed by Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler. With these seismic shifts in the franchise’s production, time will tell if the franchise can maintain its successful transition from Balboa to Creed.
Since the events of the previous film, Adonis Creed (Jordan) has gone on to maintain his prosperous career in boxing as he achieves all of the accolades before retiring. His family life has stabilised since leaving the boxing ring, and along with Bianca (Tessa Thompson) at his side, they are enjoying raising their daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). During the day, she produces her music, and Donnie spends his time at the gym scouting for new talent to support in the sporting arena. Then one day, his childhood friend Damian "Dame" Anderson (Jonathan Majors) re-enters his life and asks for help after being released from prison. As the past and present collide, Adonis must decide what to do with his friend, who brings a portion of his life to light that he had hoped to bury.
What becomes apparent early on in the film is how Jordan chooses to keep the look and feel that has made the Creed storyline work over the past few years. Besides the exclusion of Stallone, the rest of the screenplay has enough familiarity to keep fans bought into this chapter. Yet, the element that has made the difference in the appeal of these films has to be the performance of the antagonist that anchors the future battle in the ring. Jonathan Majors was the right actor to play the nuanced boxer from the past, proving he can walk the line between the light and shade of friendship. Despite the familiarity of the genre, his performance lifts this character into one of the foes in this series.
Creed III ties this trilogy up neatly and brings satisfactory closure to this set of films. As this film will undoubtedly go on to be a knockout at the box office and there will be more stories to follow, this one will give the Rocky/Creed devotees the short-term conclusion they need for now.
The word becomes film
Russ Matthews' new book is a modern-day parable that introduces a radically easy way of talking about God’s story
If you order the book today you will also receive a complementary study guide that is only available with the purchase of the book (Print or ebook)
REEL DIALOGUE: Can we be forgiven for past sins?
This film takes the viewer into Adonis Creed’s past and exposes sins that he had hoped to leave in the past. His story is like most of us by showing how our decisions affect others and how we must own up to them. This film rips open the wounds caused by past sins and attempts to answer how each life decision has effects that ripple throughout time. In the search for the answer to the question of how to let these things go and to find peace, the solution can be found in the words of the Bible.
“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” - Mark 11:25
This sounds easy enough and straightforward, but for most people, it is challenging to do. Why? Because the key to this passage is belief in God and that he can forgive ‘all’ of our sins, regardless of their severity. To forgive others can only truly be experienced as being forgiven by God first, because He first loved us. Understandably, people can forgive without God, but they can never understand the true meaning of this forgiveness without His presence in their lives.
