Creed III Review
In the first Rocky-free film of the Creed series, Jordan takes on Jonathan Majors in a brilliantly rendered boxing tale.
Ryan Coogler’s Creed, from 2015, was not only a worthy legacy to the Rocky legacy but found its way to transcend that as a completely different kind of great movie. Creed II followed in 2018, and while it wasn’t quite bad, it functioned more as a fan-service-packed sequel to Rocky IV than as a self-contained story.
Now, we have Creed III, which was directed by star Michael B. Jordan and is missing several elements familiar from the Rocky/Creed series up until now, starting of course with the lack of Rocky. Also, Philadelphia is not a location, and we hear almost nothing of Bill Conti’s score, aside from one snippet. And a specific Los Angeles landmark stands in for the steps.
Sure, the film’s structure is familiar, but the way it tells the story is very different.
The result is a first-rate outing, which shows great potential on Jordan’s part as a director- just as Coogler did in the first Creed, he finds new and inventive ways to stage on-stage boxing matches, including the introductions and entrances (one fighter’s entrance, inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead, is especially a highlight). Creed III stands on its own as a gripping story that isn’t dependent on nostalgia for the earlier films while giving the series its first compelling antagonist since some time in the ’80s.
No, it’s not as good as Creed — few movies, after all, are — but Creed III is a huge improvement on Creed II. One gets the sense that Jordan learned a great deal from Coogler, his director on both Creed and Black Panther, as well as other directors he’s worked with throughout his acting career. Coogler is credited as a producer, along with Jordan, Stallone, and six other people.
Coogler’s Creed, which is no less than one of the best films of the current millennium, is a masterwork full of beautiful shots that I still think about all the time. Creed III, while not quite on that level, is good in the same way the original Creed was. Sure, it’s about the past. But the Creed past, not the Rocky past.
In the present day, Adonis Creed has unified the heavyweight title belts and then retired to spend time with his wife (Tessa Thompson) and adorable daughter (Mila Davis-Kent). Taking on post-ring careers as both the owner of a gym and a promoter, Creed is soon confronted by Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors), a childhood friend who’s fresh out of prison and has his mind on a boxing career, as well as payback.
Contrary to silly rumors at the time of casting, Majors’ character is not Clubber Lang’s son. This isn’t Rise of Skywalker. Instead, he’s got a much more compelling motivation and arc, in which he’s both a formidable opponent and someone deserving of some sympathy. Not only is this much more worthy of Majors’ considerable talents than the gibberish he was required to spout in the recent Ant-Man movie, but it’s the first time in this series since probably Rocky IV that an antagonist in this series has had this full and interesting story.
That story is executed super-well, as are the resolutions of trilogy-long arcs involving Adonis’ adopted mother (Phylicia Rashad) and wife (Thompson). But one thing that isn’t resolved is anything involving Rocky himself. Sure, his name is mentioned a time or two, but we don’t learn whether he’s alive or dead, or the status of his relationship with his protege.
There are some plot holes, yes, but they’re mostly defensible.
Sure, a guy in his mid-30s who just got out of prison and has never had a single professional fight has absolutely no business getting a shot at the heavyweight champion of the world. But then, neither did Rocky in the first Rocky nor Creed in the original Creed.
As with all these movies, Creed III is set in a universe in which boxing is a great deal more relevant than it actually is. It’s a world where heavyweight title fights sell out Dodger Stadium and boxing is frequently discussed by Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take. (I recently read Smith’s memoir, and I’m not certain it mentioned boxing a single time.)
As for Adonis, there’s no way he’d ever have success as a boxing promoter. For one thing, he’s not nearly sleazy enough. It’s hard to imagine him screwing fighters out of money, fudging contracts, or any of the other stuff Don King was accused of doing.
Also, a ticket stub from the 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman is important to the plot. In this universe, we know that Apollo Creed was the heavyweight champion in 1976 and successfully defeated Rocky. So Ali and Foreman existed alongside him, having their famous fight in Zaire two years earlier? How did the title lineage work? We know Joe Frazier was a guest at Apollo and Rocky’s fight, but did Apollo ever fight Ali or Foreman?
At any rate, Creed III is a near-total triumph and a worthy conclusion to this trilogy of films.
