Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Light Italian dressing.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 21, 2023

Infamous for being the first Rocky movie with no appearance by Sylvester Stallion (it's a sore subject), Michael B. Jordan's Creed III continues the saga of Adonis "Donnie" Creed (Jordan) and his family, including wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Pulling double duty as a sequel and quasi-origin story for its title character, Creed III opens on a fateful LA night when young Donnie and friend Damian "Dame" Anderson (Jonathan Majors) sneak out for Dame's underground boxing match. His bout ends in victory, but the after-party goes bad when Donnie attacks a man named Leon (Aaron Alexander) whose abusive behavior tarnished their time in a group home. Dame pulls a gun when the fight intensifies, only to be caught by police and sent to prison for 18 years.

Fast-forward to the present and we're soon caught up with Donnie and his family: he's living the high life, retired from boxing with plenty of time to devote to Bianca, Amara, and his local gym run by Tony "Little Duke" Evers (Wood Harris). Donnie also tries to stay active in the life of his adopted mother Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad), who's now in declining health after suffering a recent stroke at her Bel Air home. After a round of training with his protégé and current world champ Felix Chavez (José Benavidez Jr.), who'll soon be defending his title against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), Donnie finds Dame waiting for him in the parking lot. Released from prison only two weeks ago, the older Dame hasn't seen his former friend in nearly two decades... but they're quickly reacquainted, and Dame expresses a sincere desire to compete professionally after his short but successful boxing career was cut short by tragic circumstances. Naturally, Donnie's reluctant to help Dame... but when he finally relents, it causes a shockwave that disrupts the upcoming championship match, Donnie's family life, and just about everything else that he holds dear.

Creed III is guilty of several things... but none more so than scattershot pacing and an extremely predictable story, both of which ultimately stem from its paint-by-numbers script. Planting this new seed in Donnie's past didn't give his rivalry with Dame nearly enough time to grow, and the ultra-quick speed at which the film's dramatic events progress all but undercut any real amount of dramatic tension. (As an unavoidably spoiler-ish example, the planned title fight's sudden re-booking happens barely a few short scenes after Dame is barely allowed to spar with current champ Felix.) To make matters worse, the eventual bad blood between both former friends is treated more like a WWE storyline -- Donnie plays the role of pampered babyface and Dame, the sneering heel -- that gives Creed III a cartoonish tone that hasn't been seen since Rocky IV and V. Though credited as a producer, Stallone's absence is a telling sign of his lack of faith in the story; he reportedly bailed from a larger stake in this production due to creative differences (much of it related to a dispute with producer Irwin Winkler) and, given the end result, it's hard to blame him.

Even so, there are times when Creed III flirts with greatness -- or at least goodness -- such as an admittedly touching scene between Donnie and Mary Anne, other family moments, and the franchise's always-thrilling fight scenes. Its key players, including short-lived newcomer Jonathan Majors, bring suitably solid performances to the show. Other factors, however, are more dependent on your love/tolerance of franchise tropes including several training montages, familiar music cues, and those nicely done broadcast-style segments that add to the realism. But this is Rocky purely by the numbers; fine enough for a run through, but nothing special. Warner Bros.' home video package seems to mirror this lukewarm sentiment with a high-quality A/V presentation but only the bare minimum of extras.

For a slightly warmer take on Creed III, please see Brian Orndorf's theatrical review.

Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I have to admit that I'm really not a fan of Creed III's cinematography. There's a dominant level of sickly blue-green and orange tones on display during flashback, nighttime, and many indoor scenes that have a distinctly hazy, diffused appearance and overpowering black levels that don't leave much room for smooth, precise shadow detail. It's really kind of a garish aesthetic but, within those particular boundaries, is at least represented well enough on this 2160p transfer with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support. Image detail remains during those stretches, with the same going for native textures and the aforementioned shadow detail. Brightly lit scenes fare perfectly well, of course. Colors likewise remain true to their source on both ends of the spectrum, with the high dynamic range separating a few vivid hues -- costume highlights, neon signage, on-screen TV graphics -- from the abundance of muted tones. Even so, Creed III's particular visual style doesn't make it an ideal candidate for what HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are ideally capable of, as its deepest black levels remain are stubbornly flat and true whites are rarer than expected. Even many of its brightest light sources retain kind of a yellowish, gauzy appearance that blend into the background.

Overall, though, it's still a fine image and unavoidably smoother than its Blu-ray counterpart, though some of the usual differences aren't quite as noticeable as expected. In any case, it's a well-authored disc and surprisingly gets an entire 100GBs of space to itself, all but ensuring no flagrant amounts of compression artifacts like banding, posterization, and macro blocking, as those nagging patches of black crush (some of which compete with adjacent mid-level color values) seem to be an unavoidable byproduct of its visual aesthetic rather than some sort of transfer defect. All in all, this is a capable presentation of a film whose strengths don't lie in consistently eye-catching visuals.

For my thoughts on the included Blu-ray's 1080p/SDR transfer (the source of this review's screenshots) as well as 20 more images, please read my separate review of the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.

Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Whatever reservations I have regarding Creed III's visual style don't extend to its excellent Dolby Atmos presentation, which isn't surprising given that it's a franchise that's has always been driven by exceptional sound design. Even so, big boxing matches and other physically-driven scenes don't dominate the film -- there are only a handful of in-ring fights, bits and pieces of sparring practices, and a few stray altercations here and here. This means that, like smaller sections of the first two films, much of the remaining sonic activity is of a more internal nature, such as several melodramatic moments where background effects and instrumental music cues do most of the driving. Other musical cuts, like the bass-heavy dynamics of Dr. Dre's "The Watcher" -- an effective intro piece, if ever there was one -- and songs by Ari Lennox, Blxst, J. Cole, and Big Sean also enjoy a rich and dynamic presence, whether put to work as background montage music or placed more in the front as boxers' entrance themes. Meanwhile, the usual suspects from previous entries are still here: crisp dialogue, heavy and atmospheric use of rear and side channels during intense matches, and sporadic use of the height channels for added immersion. Bottom line: this is another top-tier effort that really adds to the experience, and it sounds as good or better here as it likely did during theatrical showings.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are offered during the film and all bonus features.

Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in a dual-hubbed keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork, a matching matte-finish slipcover, and a Digital Copy redemption code. Extras can be found on the Blu-ray disc only.

• Michael B. Jordan: In the Ring / Behind the Camera (10:04) - This candid BTS featurette follows the director on and off the set as he balances directorial duties with his lead role. Other participants are producers Ryan Coogler and Irwin Winkler, actor Tessa Thompson, co- screenwriter Kevin Coogler, and more.

• There's No Enemy Like the Past: Donnie and Dame (9:20) - A like-minded piece that's obviously a bit more character focused, this featurette outlines Creed III's double duties as a sequel and origin story.

• Deleted Scenes (3 clips, 4:23 total) - Three short and mostly inconsequential deleted scenes, including "Dame Steals Candy for Boy", "Amara School Hallway", and "Duke Talks to Adonis in Church".

Creed III 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As the first film in the Rocky franchise without an appearance by Sylvester Stallone (who produced, but had objections with the script), Creed III feels like it should at least be the first step in a bold new direction. It flirts with greatness during a few fleeting moments, yet the film's scattershot pacing limits its dramatic effectiveness and the relatively limp story doesn't offer much that we haven't seen already in some form or another. This is Rocky by the numbers... which means it's still worth watching, but hardly a chapter worth getting all that excited about. Warner Bros.' home video package offers solid A/V quality (within reason, given the film's particular visual style) but strangely skimps on the bonus features, which means this one's recommended more for established fans than as a blind buy.