About Creed III

This blog contains spoilers

First off, I wanna say that this film was incredible, it took me all the way back to Rocky I with all the drama and the very little time spent fighting.

My fave thing about the movie has to be the dynamic between Bianca, Adonis and Amara, especially between the last two. The ending where they box playfully melts my heart and I really hope she gets her own film in the future.

The fights in Creed III are so, so, sooo much better than the ones in Creed II, those looked as if Pixar had taken over the film just for the fight scenes. That CGI made me think that I had accidentaly turned on my PC and booted up Mortal Kombat. So glad that they either used more choreography or upped their CGI game. Now, I get what they wanted to represent in the last fight with the scene where the stadium is suddendly abandoned and the ring becomes a prison, but it looks awfully out of place within the realistic aesthetic of the Rocky franchise (minus the brain damage effects in the 5th film)

I also loved that they played Bill Conti's The Final Bell from Rocky I at the end of the last fight, I almost jumped out of my chair, but why did I get so excited? Easy, cause Rocky does not appear at all in the film. Can you tell me why? Of course you can, it's because Stallone had problems with Winkler.

Now buckle up cause this is where the problem with the movie begins:

Now don't get me wrong, it doesn't really bother me that Rocky isn't in the film, thet's actually fine. What bother me is that they don't tell you anything about him. He just disappears 'poof'. 'Rocky Balboa'? No idea, what is? A sandwich? It pisses me off so much that they didn't even mention him once... well, they actually did, but they weren't talking with him or about him, they just mentioned him, almost by accident. The writers could have made up any excuse to why he's not there and I would have gladly accepted it. The cancer suddenly came back and he's in the hospital during the whole film? Fine. He's too old to move and he can't leave his house? Sure, why not.

I get what they were trying to do. They wanted Adonis to build his own legacy, they wanted the Creed films separated from the Rocky films. That's fine, and incredibly hard thing to do since you had Rocky as a main character in the first two Creed movies, but yeah, it is fine. What is not fine is to completely forget about the man who gave you EVERYTHING. Let's remember that Adonis would not have gotten that far at all if it wasn't for Rocky. He would have flopped hard. And it's okay to want to build you own legacy, I completely endorse it, and I love that Creed wants to be more indepent but whatever. Let's just say that he doesn't need Rocky anymore, Adonis is a grown man, he's had his career and is incredibly succesful. Well, Rocky isn't. Let's not forget that he was about to kill himself until Adonis stepped up. Rocky has nothing to live for besides Adonis, he would have given up if it wasn't for him. The kid saved his life, just like he saved Mickey's, the only difference is Rocky never abandoned Mick. He stayed by his side until his deathbed. Adonis on the other hand took the selfish route. In a movie that's all about standing by your people's side and not giving up on them, Creed didn't really lear anything. When they reconcile with Anderson, he could've called Rocky, okay, Stallone wasn't in the film. He could have at least said a word to him, even if they weren't together, some words to the air, that's all I'm asking for.

Yes, I completely understand and agree that Adonis needs to be on his own, but this wasn't the way to do it. Maybe if they didn't want him to be absent during the whole film, they could have killed Rocky off. I would have been completely fine with that, no one Rocky knew is alive, they're all gone, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he had died too, but they just didn't have the balls to do it, they're still holding on to the idea that Stallone might come back. And he is willing to, he said it, but only if Winkler steps off. My point it, Creed III could have been an amazing movie, it almost is, but it didn't have the balls to be one, so it falls short. Adonis comes off as a selfish and egotistical asshole who abandoned a man when he needed him the most. Apollo was selfish too, I know, but at least he wasn't a jerk who didn't give a shit about his loved ones.

TLDR; Creed III is a great film but it shits all over everything that the Rocky and Creed franchises had been building for so long