I had to skip the press screening for Michael B. Jordan’s “Creed III” but am set to attend another showing next Wednesday. The reviews are in and the positive test-screenings turned out to be fairly accurate.
Jordan’s directorial debut has an 88% on RT and 72 on Metacritic. All I want is an entertaining movie. January to March is when the big studios dump their lacklustre movies, so I’ll take just about anything of decent quality right now.
Ryan Coogler’s 2015 “Creed” will probably not be eclipsed as far as I’m concerned. That was just an energetically directed anomaly in the Rocky franchise. That’s why I wish Coogler would stray far away from the Marvel demon and actually go back to making regular films.
“Creed II,” which was directed by Steven Caple Jr, felt like a step back for the franchise. It was decently received, but paled in comparison to Coogler’s. It’ll be interesting to see what Jordan does as a director.
No surprise, a major highlight for many critics in “Creed III” is Jonathan Major’s performance as Adonis’ nemesis, Damian Anderson — he steals the show. Damian was Adonis' best friend when they were living in a group home, now he’s out of prison and ready to take on his former compadre.
Majors is coming off his incredible performance in this year’s Sundance-premiered “Magazine Dreams,” which still doesn’t have a distributor. I can see why. It’s basically “Taxi Driver” set in the bodybuilding world. I really believe, with the right studio push, that he can get nominated for next year’s Oscars.
Regardless, it looks as though Warner Bros. might have a major hit in their hands. “Creed III” gets released on March 3rd, 2023. A trailer was released earlier this week.