DVD Corner's blog

Creed 3 4K UHD Review

“Creed 3” is a winner. 

Written by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, “Creed 3” finds Adonis Creed on a new path in life. Professionally, he has retired from boxing and is running a boxing academy. In terms of his family life, Creed and his wife Bianca are raising their hearing impaired daughter Amara who runs into some trouble at school and seems to become more and more interested in following in her father’s footsteps. Creed’s life becomes disrupted when a face from the past resurfaces in the form of an old friend (Damian). Damian spent the last 18 years in prison after taking the fall for an incident involving Donnie. Now, Damian is back and is hungry to get a chance at a boxing career by any means necessary. His goal is to fight Adonis for the belt. Elsewhere in the story there is a key subplot involving Creed’s mother Mary-Anne.

“Creed 3” marks the first film in the franchise without Sylvester Stallone/Rocky. While the legendary character’s absence is a bit strange (particularly in a funeral scene), there’s more than enough going on in this third installment to make up for that. 

Michael B. Jordan pulls triple duties here as a star, producer and director (it’s his directorial debut to be exact). If “Creed 3” is any indication, he’s a natural born filmmaker. Whether he’s creating a visually engaging fight sequence or filming a heartfelt dramatic scene, Jordan has the eye of a filmmaker to be sure. On top of that, he gives easily his best performance as Adonis Creed to date. Perhaps Jordan being able to helm the project allowed him more freedom into exploring the character more. 

What really makes this third entry work as well as it does is the script. As cliched as it is to say now, Coogler and Baylin have written a story that is much more than a mere boxing tale. This is a character drama, a family drama, a crime drama, a friends turned enemies drama, and a sports drama rolled into one. There’s even some anime flavoring here and there (not to mention some background anime references). The heart of the movie though is about communication or a lack thereof. You don’t see a lot of films that broach the subject of the difficulty of communicating feelings and thoughts and that really caught my eye. Not to get into spoiler territory here, but the real struggle of Adonis within this film is his inability to communicate his feelings about the past.

The script does have a few iffy moments. Viktor Drago is sorely underutilized and Damian’s path to the championship bout is flat-out ridiculous to say the least. Neither element detracts from the overall story.

In terms of the cast, Tessa Thompson is great as per usual as Bianca but it’s deaf actress Mila Davis-Kent who steals the show as Amara Creed. It’s clear that Amara Creed is likely the future of the franchise. Last, but not least there’s Jonathan Majors as Damian. While it remains unclear what will become of his career in light of troubling recent events, there’s no denying that this is yet another attention grabbing performance from the rising star. Majors makes acting seem so effortless.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 2.39:1 2160p. How does it look? Expect a crystal clear transfer here (although the CGI flaws are much more apparent here).

Audio Track: Dolby Atmos. How does it sound? A dynamic track in and out of the ring.

Extras:
* Blu-ray copy
* Digital copy
* 3 deleted scenes
* “Michael B. Jordan: In The Ring/Behind The Camera”- A 10 minute behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses on Michael B. Jordan stepping into the director’s chair. Interviews and set footage are included.
* “Donnie And Dame: There’s No Enemy Like The Past”- A featurette about the dynamic between the characters and actors. 

May 22, 2023 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 4K UHD Review | Adonis Creed, Boxing Movie, Creed 3 4K UHD Review, Creed III 4K UHD Review, Jonathan Majors, Michael B. Jordan, Rocky, Tessa Thompson