Film Review: Creed III
CREED III ENDS A TRILOGY ON ITS OWN TERMS
Michael B. Jordan marks his confident and kinetic directorial debut with Creed III. Carving a propulsive parallel to Adonis Creed’s journey to cement his legacy, Jordan sheds the Rocky franchise DNA by charting his own path of blistering performances, formal verve, and anime-inspired showdowns. An electrifying tempest of fists and sweat, Creed III fully transcends what could have been a journeyman effort. Jonathan Majors is astonishing. Minor spoilers ahead…
Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa is nowhere to be found in Creed III. For the first two films of the rebooted Rocky franchise, a weathered Balboa played creaky sage to hothead upstart Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), imparting the wisdom gathered from nearly half a century of triumphs and beatdowns in the ring. In the third installment, Stallone’s iconic boxer is relegated to but a poster on the wall, the Balboa name nary a whisper on characters’ lips. This is mostly due to an off-camera spat between Stallone and longtime Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, but after soaking in Creed III - Michael B. Jordan’s exhilarating, electric directorial debut - one might begin to wonder if slipping the coils of the Rocky DNA was not only the right choice, but a natural terminus for the story of Adonis Creed.
Having finally bested the son of the boxer who killed his father in 2018’s Creed II, Adonis begins Creed III nearly a decade removed from closing the book on the Dragos. After one final rematch with “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), his fiery opponent from the first Creed, Adonis retires with his heavyweight title undisputed and his legacy secured. With Keenan Coogler and Zach Braylon’s screenplay, Michael B. Jordan sketches out Donnie’s personal life, free from the shadow of legacy characters: Creed III juggles the champ’s complicated relationship with his own stardom, his family life with wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), and his new role as aged-out promoter instead of in-the-ring contender. However, it isn’t before long that history again comes calling, this time with a ghost not from Rocky nor Apollo’s past, but Adonis’ own. Enter Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson (an astonishing Jonathan Majors): a once-promising fighter and Adonis’ best friend from his group home days, whose involvement in one of Donnie’s altercations sends him to prison on a weapons charge for almost 20 years. Now a free man, Damian is looking to restart his boxing career with the help of his old friend. Shouldering the guilt over his own part in Damian’s incarceration, Adonis agrees to help him train, but their relationship deteriorates almost as quickly as it was rekindled. Dame proves himself to be a dangerous loose cannon, igniting an enmity which leads to Adonis strapping on his gloves one last time for one last fight.
“…but after soaking in Creed III…one might begin to wonder if slipping the coils of the Rocky DNA was not only the right choice, but a natural terminus for the story of Adonis Creed.”
It would be a lie to say that the absence of tried-and-true elements from Rocky and the previous Creed movies isn’t felt: Stallone and his rousing pep talks, Ludwig Göransson’s tearjerking rearrangement of the classic Bill Conti score, and even the heart-pounding peaks and valleys of a final showdown are all noticeably missing from the Creed III fabric. The film never reaches the complexities and emotional swell of Creed, but these voids - which I initially bristled against - are replaced with a different mode of filmmaking nearly as exhilarating; Michael B. Jordan as the new maestro behind the camera deftly finds his own way of remixing the Rocky grit with a new voice, way outstripping what could have been a journeyman effort.
A parallel of Adonis’ own journey, Creed III finds an exciting groove away from its “spin-off” label. As the narrative builds up to a final confrontation between Adonis and Damian, Jordan eschews Göransson’s brassy chorals for Joseph Shirley’s hip-hop instrumentals, and drives the boxing action with a fresh sheen: gone is the knock-down, drag-out realism of the first two Creed movies. In its place? Balletic, explosive spectacle inspired by Jordan’s own love for Japanese animation. Like most Rocky films, Creed III shines brightest inside the ring, and Jordan brings a shonen flourish pulled straight from anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Hajime no Ippo, and Megalobox: Slow-motion ramps flow into devastating blows, sweat and blood ripple off sinew, and the eyes of bitter rivals lock onto each other from across the ring. The action is a doozy. Deep into the climax of the final bout - in perhaps Creed III’s most inspired bit of showmanship - the rowdy Los Angeles audience falls away into a black silence, the boxing ring suddenly girded into an iron-barred cage match: the film’s affecting commentary on masculinity and repressed emotions made flesh into a mind palace showdown. Rocky could - and would - never.
“None of this would work nearly as well without the efforts of Jonathan Majors, who gives the Rocky series its best foil since Apollo Creed.”
None of this would work nearly as well without the efforts of Jonathan Majors, who gives the Rocky series its best foil since Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed. More than the formidable - but rather anonymous - ciphers of “Pretty” Ricky Conlan and Ivan Drago (Florian Munteanu), Majors’ “Diamond Dame” finds a deep-seated pathos that transcends the stock veneer of an erratic menace. A cauldron of resentment, charming ferocity, and palpable sadness, the unpredictable Damian is a dangerous opponent for Adonis. In fact, the character is so well-drawn that Creed III at times labors to swing our sympathies to Adonis. At one point, Delphi trainer and Creed mainstay Duke (Wood Harris) counsels Donnie: “You don’t owe him anything!” I’m not so sure about that. When Damian calls out our hero’s rise to superstardom, Bianca assures Adonis that everything he’s accomplished, he’s earned himself. Did he, though?
Creed III, the ninth film in an IP franchise, finds remarkable robustness in its willingness to break away from tradition. It may be a forced departure, but Michael B. Jordan leans into a confident verve rarely seen in a first-time director, putting his own stamp on the Rocky formula. And while the first two Creed installments are masterstrokes of sports drama in their own right, it’s Creed III that finally finds its story - like the title character himself - minting its own legacy. By leaving the shadows of Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, Jordan fully commits to a full canvas of ideas about Black masculinity, failed systems, and the complex tug-of-war between self-reliance and vulnerability - it just so happens to be peppered with some sick, anime boxing.
