A full week ahead of its launch, reviews are now out for “Creed III” which marks both the film’s star Michael B. Jordan’s first time directing a film, and the first entry in the overall “Rocky” franchise without Sylvester Stallone’s involvement.
The new film sees a time jump of five years ahead with Adonis Creed (Jordan) at a pivotal time well into his professional career. He ends up facing off against a recently released from prison childhood friend named Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) in the ring.
With 38 reviews counted, the film is hitting an 87% (7.4/10) score on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s in the middle of the films – behind the 95% highly acclaimed original and a bit ahead of the still solidly scoring 83% of the second film. Both those movies incorporate several hundred reviews into their scores and so the final score for “Creed III” is still a little in flux.
It’s a similar story over at Metacritic where the film is sitting on a 72/100 – definitely behind the 82/100 for the first film but ahead of the 66/100 for the second. Here’s a sampling of review quotes:
“A rock-solid sequel that’s closer to ‘Cape Fear’ than ‘Rocky’. In a sports drama that feels like a thriller, Jonathan Majors once again proves his mettle as Adonis’ ominous friend-turned-boxing-foe. If Creed III turns out to be the last Creed movie, it will prove to be a satisfying finale. But if not, it keeps the bar high.” –
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Creed III suffers from a certain lack of heft and specificity in its storytelling structure, a sense that the original bare-knuckle magic is not all there. But it’s also often better than the blunt-force melodrama of the last film.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“An overcooked script… keeps Creed III from landing every punch it throws. Overall, though, it does prove victorious: Jordan clearly has directorial skill, and he and Majors make for a formidable onscreen duo.” – Kate Erbland, IndieWire
“Jordan uses the full power of IMAX to direct some glorious fight scenes… These flourishes will surely delight many fans of the franchise, even as the narrative — the reason we keep watching Adonis fight in and out of the ring — lets us down.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
“A rare sequel that comes close to restoring one’s faith in the worth and legitimacy of the franchise as a concept, the latest chapter in what might well be the best we have right now.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian
“Quiet, almost stately, a real actor’s picture…but…a humorless, dry retread of the lesser, later “Rocky” movies, a molehill of a tale for our boxing titans to climb” – Roger Moore, Movie Nation
“There are narrative road bumps involved in trying to reconcile the franchise’s American sports-drama roots with sports-anime inspirations, but the emotions hold it together.” – Siddhant Adlakha, Polygon
Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, and Felicia Rashad reprise their roles from earlier entries and are joined by Selenis Leyva, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Spence Moore II, Mila Davis-Kent, and Canelo Álvarez. “Creed III” is set to hit cinemas on March 3rd.
