Directed by: Michael B. Jordan
Written by: Keenan Coogler & Zach Baylin
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Mila Davis-Kent
Rating: [4/5]
After a while one would expect for a series of films to see some diminishing returns, especially when the series of films has evidently proven to showcase this particular decline. Luckily, the individuals behind this new trilogy know how to borrow from the old and still manage to bring a refreshing take on the story of a legend in the making. Creed III proves this to be true once again, with the star standing in both in front and behind the camera.
After running the gauntlet in the world of boxing, a retired Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) gets a visit from a childhood friend, Damian (Jonathan Majors), who just saw his release from prison after a lengthy sentence. Feeling robbed from a career in boxing himself, Damian, with the help of Adonis, begins to run up the ranks and quickly becomes an adversary to the legendary retired boxer when he takes the generosity and seeks a long sought after revenge.
The Creed films overall have managed to follow the plot beats of the original Rocky films with some larger differences, mostly cultural, with Adonis being a Black man going through this experience. This feature follows a similar trajectory to its counterpart in Rocky III, where the well-accomplished boxing protagonist must take on the hungry and poorer antagonist who appears and will not play nice. This film’s version of Clubber Lang however has a much more personal qualm with his adversary, which makes their eventual face off that much more satisfying. It goes beyond anything remotely professional and this drive to reach the top but a mix of revenge and soul-taking from Damian that makes each hit land with an extra bit of venom.
Starting out the film showing the pivotal moment in their lives where Damian gets sent to prison where he feels he took the fall for Adonis presents this sliding doors scenario of what would have transpired should the situation had gone differently. Would Adonis just be getting out of jail while Damian lived this life? Damian ultimately feels that way and he enters this film with no qualms in him trying to claim what he states belong to him. Each of their encounters quickly shift from cordial to tension-packed where it moves into the deeply personal. All of this services the ultimate showdown Adonis and Damian will have in the ring, as all of these films eventually have.
Getting into boxing-ready shape comes as a challenge for Adonis, seeing as he had not been in the ring for many years and now has to take on a man who worked for years to be ready for this moment. Certainly quite the difference in their level of preparation but it does give us those moments where Adonis can play into the famous Rocky moments of training and preparation through all means necessary. Sure, he’s not in some forest hurling logs, but the man goes through various tests and tribulations in his older age to prepare for this battle that varies from any other he has undertaken before in his career. A battle that has nothing to do with Rocky or his father Apollo Creed. Everything here sits between Adonis and a man who used to be like a brother to him in Damian.
The big difference behind the screen shifts from career directors to the star stepping in with his directorial debut. Having a film of this magnitude serve as a directorial debut would scare some off but Michael B. Jordan knows this character inside and out and he impressed with how he shot this film. It certainly does not measure up to what Ryan Coogler accomplished in the first film but Jordan builds the gravitas of this moment and also adds some inventiveness to the boxing showdown at the end, which makes sense considering the deeply personal nature of it. He threw in some curveballs I did not see coming in the way he highlighted particular moments in the film and his particular eye for this exhibits the bountiful talent this man has.
Capping off quite the trilogy that could completely satisfactorily conclude the Creed series if they wanted to, this film hits some incredible new notes. Michael B. Jordan provides another layer to Adonis Creed and his journey of trying to live up to his last name all the way to building an empire far beyond whatever he originally imagined. The complexities in this character get accentuated by Jordan’s acting and it gets equally met by what he manages to construct as the director constructing something that does not measure up to the first film, which still speaks to the quality of these sequels. Creed III hits all the right marks and delivers in all the pulse-pounding moments we have to expect with this character and his story.
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