“Creed III” follows Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed – a prominent side character in the “Rocky” franchise. Adonis is played by Michael B. Jordan who has made his directorial debut with this movie. While “Creed III” does not meet the standards of the first film it was better than “Creed II”, also in many ways “Creed III” felt more like a stand alone rather than a part of a series. 

First off, there was only one major fault in this movie and it was how the absence of the prominent character Rocky Balboa was not addressed. Now for many that was not the main issue, instead it was the fact that Rocky (played by Sylvester Stallone) was not even in the film. However I felt the least they could have done was talk about Rocky, yet he was barely even mentioned which made it feel as though he never existed in the first place. All of this ended up causing the movie to not seem like a stand alone film. Although the absence of Rocky was a disappointment to some it did open up room for there to be a larger storyline over Adonis and the relationship with his most personal opponent – Damian Anderson (played by Jonathan Majors).

In addition, “Creed III” may just have been the most emotional out of all the other “Creed” movies, this led to there being some strong performances from multiple actors. For the first time, the opponent (Damian) was given a deep storyline allowing for actor Jonathan Majors to show off his acting skills. In some ways Damian had much more character growth and character depth than Adonis, even though the main character was Adonis. That is nothing against Jordan as an actor there was just more for Majors to do. Although in many ways, Majors and Jordan balanced each other out causing no one to steal the spotlight from one another. 

Moving on, Jordan exceeded expectations with his directing especially for being a first time filmmaker. In multiple interviews Jordan has said how his directing was inspired by different anime shows. That inspiration was displayed in numerous scenes, especially the fighting ones in the boxing ring. He had a unique approach to directing, for example during the major fight between Adonis and Damian they cut to a scene where it’s just the two of them with no one in the crowd. That moment was shown through the fighter’s perspective which is a type of scene that was not in any other “Creed ” or “ Rocky”. When actors take on directing it is a common assumption that they are doing it just to make more money, but the amount of passion which Jordan put into “Creed III ” does not express such an idea. 

Overall, the two biggest highlights of this movie were Johnathan Majors performance and how Michael B. Jordan made an incredible directorial debut. While “Creed III” could not keep the Rocky legacy going it did however keep the Creed legacy moving.