“Creed III”, the ninth film in the larger Rocky franchise and the third centering on Adonis ‘Donnie’ Creed played by Michael B. Jordan released March 3. This time around, newly retired heavyweight champion Donnie adjusts his life outside of boxing to a star promoter and gym owner. His life takes a toll when a childhood friend and former boxing role model Damian returns after nearly two decades in prison for Adonis’s mistakes. Also, deaf actor Mila Kent-Davis plays Donnie’s deaf daughter, Amara, and she used American Sign Language (ASL) throughout the movie. Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian, a fighter who sees no issues with losing.

“Creed III was an incredible movie in my opinion, the audience can see the passion and the effort Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors put into their roles. The spin-off with Adonis’ best friend coming out of jail was a nice touch to the movie. The movie also teaches life lessons, and the fighting scenes were also clean and it got me so intrigued into boxing even though I wouldn’t watch it outside the movie Creed,” sophomore Dallas Duffie said. 

The Creed trilogy never disappointed fans because all movies came with impressive boxing scenes and passionate acting. The references to the “Rocky” movies also put the icing on top with nostalgia for older audiences. By the way, the movie ended, it appears that producers plan to release another “Creed” with teasers that Adonis’s daughter might pursue a fighting career as well. The audience can see the passion in her eyes and can tell  she loved boxing as much as her dad. Amara also watches all of her dad’s previous matches before retirement even though her mom tells her not to.

Jordan took influence from various animes such as “Dragon Ball Z” and “Naruto”. With a fight scene specifically inspired by “Naruto” while filming Adonis and Damian’s fighting scene, Jordan wanted the fighting scenes to feel emotional. The scene relates to when Naruto’s Nine-Tailed Fox activates inside of Naruto where it seems like a sealed void. 

“Michael is a big fan of anime. He always talked about the complexities of the friendships in those stories and the rivalries and all that. He showed me one of his favorite anime cartoons and it was these two best friends, and we really parallel this in some ways in our picture. They get to a point in the fight and their battles where everything else seems to fall away,” Majors said.

One of the aspects of a great actor comes with the vast chemistry with co-stars. For two extremely talented actors like Jordan and Majors, the chemistry between them comes easy. The two debuted together for the first time in “Creed III”, and the chemistry between the two starts to become unfathomable. After seeing their performances, fans started clamoring for additional movies of them together. Lucky for the audience, it appears that both of them seem just as interested.

The Chant’s Grade: A-