Movie Review: Creed III

Michael B. Jordan makes his feature directorial debut with Creed III, an exciting, emotional, and impressively-made film that solidifies that this franchise belongs to Jordan.

After winning his final fight against “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), the boxer he fought at the end of the first film, Adonis (Jordan, proving once again why he is one of the best leading men working in Hollywood today) is now retired from boxing.  We find him a few years removed from boxing where he runs a boxing gym, promotes fights, and has a gorgeous mansion in Los Angeles with Bianca (Tessa Thompson, her best performance in the franchise), a successful music producer, and their daughter, who is deaf. Though everything seems to be nice on the surface, Adonis is struggling to find purpose in his post-boxing world while also dealing with all the troubles that come with parenting and the physical toll boxing has taken on his body.

One day outside the gym, a man stands beside Adonis’s car. It’s his old friend Damian (a menacing Jonathan Majors), who Adonis hasn’t seen or spoken to in nearly two decades because Damian has been in prison for helping Adonis in a fight when they were younger. We learn through flashbacks that Damian was an impressive and talented boxer before he went away and that Adonis would hold his bag and help him train. Adonis decides to help Damian, getting him back into society and getting him back in the ring. Damian’s primary goal is to get a shot at the title belt, a seemingly impossible task to make happen overnight. Damian has his own plans, though, and finds his way to the top of the boxing rankings despite Adonis’s help and advice. The two former friends become butting rivals, forcing Adonis to confront the past and get back in the ring for one last bout.

Creed III is made with passion and creativity by Jordan and is a perfect vehicle for him to make his directorial debut. Jordan’s familiarity with the characters and the themes of the Creed franchise helps him grow the characters and develop their stories. Creed III also looks completely different than any of the other Rocky or Creed films and you can really see it in the boxing scenes. These are not your typical boxing fights. Jordan has said that the fights in the ring were inspired by anime fight sequences. This genius decision gives these fights a unique look that we haven’t seen in a boxing movie before. The fights are stylish, theatrical, and brutal and Jordan does a brilliant job of putting us in the heads of our fighters so we are seeing them fight physically and mentally. Jordan also made the smart move to shoot the fights on IMAX cameras, which helps make the ring and the fights feel otherworldly.

Jordan’s understanding and care for these characters are what make Creed III shine. The film once again dives into the past, a theme of the Creed franchise. Where the first two films looked into the past of Rocky Balboa, Creed III dives deep into Adonis’s past and shows him struggling with the guilt of what happened between him and Damian when they were younger while also learning to deal with past traumas that are brought back into light following Damian’s return. Adonis used fighting as a way of handling his trauma and his aggression, but now that he is retired, he must learn to open up about his past and his emotions, something he has struggled with his entire life.

Creed III also finds Adonis looking at his own legacy, something the two previous films have also looked at. The first film found Adonis trying to make a name for himself while also struggling with the relationship of the Creed name. Creed II found Adonis fighting the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed Adonis’s father, Apollo, in the ring to restore pride in the Creed name. Creed III finds Adonis struggling with what his legacy is and what it means. Did he achieve everything because of the name Creed? Because of Damian going away to prison? Or has it been his effort and work that put him in the place he is today? An interesting parallel to this can be made between the Creed films and the Rocky films:  are the Creed films successful because of the beloved Rocky franchise or are they great on their own merit?

The final fight in Creed III answers all of these questions but does so even before a punch is thrown. In the previous Creed films, Adonis’s boxing trunks had “Creed” written across the front waistband. In Adonis’s final fight in Creed III, the front of his waistband reads “Adonis”, symbolizing that he is more than just the Creed name and that he is the legacy. Everything that he has accomplished, everything he built, and all of the success in his life is because of what he did and the work that he put in, not because of the Creed name. It is also a reminder that even though Rocky and Stallone were such major players in the first two films, these films have always been about Adonis and have been carried by Jordan.

To coin an old boxing phrase, Creed III is a knockout.

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