It wasn't as good as the glowing reviews, and also not as good as the previous Creed movies. But still a lot of fun to watch, and featured impressive acting and camera work. If you generally like the Rocky/Creed franchise (as I do, except for a couple of real clunkers like Rocky V), you will probably like this movie too.
My big reservations are that the plot is completely and thoroughly predictable, and the plot point of Adonis's feelings of guilt about the past doesn't work for me, because 1) it seems to me obvious he wasn't actually at fault, and 2) if he was so torn up about this for so many years, it would have been evident in the previous 2 movies.
My friend wanted to know why Rocky wasn't in this movie. The real explanation, I told him, is that Sylvester Stallone had a falling out with the producers. He wanted to know the "fake" (in-universe) reason. The issue wasn't addressed in the movie, so we came up with a few possibilities of our own:
Rocky died between the end of the last movie and the start of this one (this was one of his ideas, and obviously occurred to me, too): It's an obvious one, given his age and trauma from his boxing career. But I would think this would get mentioned in the movie if it happened.
Rocky moved to Vancouver to be with his son and grandchildren (he reconciled with his son at the end of Creed II). I came up with this one.
Rocky "went to the beach," and decided living on the beach was much more fun than being involved in the boxing business. This is my friend's preferred option.
If they need a screen-writer for Creed IV, we are available!