When the first “Creed” came out in 2015, it grossed $173.6 million at the box office, gaining Michael B. Jordan followers and admirers. Warner Bros. Pictures followed up with a second Creed movie in 2018, creating the Creed series. The trilogy was completed with “Creed III” on Mar. 3, 2023. 

The Creed franchise is based on the Rocky franchise back in the 1970s, starring Sylvester Stallone as Rocky. “Rocky” is one of the most classic movies in American cinema, and, since Stallone played one of the main characters, continued to bring attention to the first two “Creed” films. Creed is the family name of the greatest boxer of all time in the movie, Apollo Creed. Creed beat Rocky in the 1970s and is still known as one of the best boxers. However, Creed died in the ring while the woman he was having an affair with was pregnant. His son, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), spent the first 10 years of his life in different foster homes and constantly fighting. Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), Apollo Creed’s widow, took Adonis Creed in. He grows up in a nice, big home and trains to be a boxer. He goes to Mexico to fight small fights and gets fairly popular. He then moves back to the U.S. and tries to find Rocky Balboa. He begs him to help, but Balboa says no. Creed had to tell him who his father was, which made Balboa change his mind. Balboa becomes his personal trainer and he becomes the heavyweight champion of the world throughout the first two Creed movies.

In the third “Creed,” Adonis retires from boxing to focus on his wife Biance (Tessa Thompson) and his daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). When his old friend, Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), who took the fall for him when they got caught with a gun as minors, gets out of jail, he goes to Creed. Anderson wanted Creed to help him become a boxer again. Creed felt guilty if he did not help him, so he got him a trainer and into fights. He got him a fight with Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez Jr.) in which he beat Chavez. This got Anderson a name in the boxing world. Eventually, Anderson and Creed got into a fight because of how selfish Anderson was being. They end up in the boxing ring to decide who is better. 

Compared to the two previous films, “Creed III” was mediocre because the others had more of an element of surprise. Although this one had an amazing plot, it was easy to guess what would happen, who would win in the fights, and who would die. Although the other two films kept viewers on their toes more, “Creed III” still has a fantastic plot with the friend coming back, and revealing their historic conflict.

Senior Mike Abdelsayed loved the way they included Anderson in the movie. “I really appreciated Damian’s comeback story, and how they portrayed him as a rags to riches kind of story,” Abdelsayed said. 

Overall, this movie was cinematic and had amazing editing. The final fight between Creed and Anderson, where there was no crowd and no roar,  just them two in a ring with the sound of their punches connecting and their heavy breathing, was particularly captivating. This was an excellent choice in editing by the director and hopefully they do that for all the fights in the next “Creed.” 

“Creed III” is available in theaters.