C3_19200_RC Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Creed and Jonathan Majors as Damian Anderson in CREED III A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Eli Ade © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. CREED is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Rated PG-13, 116 minutes
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Wood Harris, and Jose Benavidez
Out of the past and back in time, and out of the blue and back in the ring.
CREED III is the boxing legacy franchise that keeps hammering away. And with Michael B. Jordan taking his first crack at directing, he makes it feel more like a continuation of CREED instead of CREED II. The reason: no Rocky.
Don’t get me wrong. Without ROCKY there would be no CREED. But, then again, without Apollo Creed there would be no Rocky Balboa. And without Apollo, there also would not be an Adonis.
Adonis (Jordan) proved to himself he wasn’t a mistake. As Apollo’s illegitimate son, “Donnie” went by his deceased mother’s surname Johnson and spent most of his youth in the foster system or locked up in juvie. We’ve seen and heard a little of his childhood, but CREED III further shows that the ties that bind us can unravel just as fast.
At the onset, Donnie’s pugilist days are nearly over. He has one last fight, retains most of his marbles, and is satisfied going off into the sunset with his songwriter/music producer wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). A post-fight career as a mentor and fight promoter to those who train at his boxing academy, Creed Athletics, is next.
From not knowing if he’d have a roof over his head to being adopted by Apollo’s widow, Mary-Anne (Phylicia Rashad), and raised in a life of luxury, Donnie has had a blessed life. Whatever sins he may have committed are now scar tissue. The funny thing about the past, though, is that emotional wounds are easy to conceal but harder to forget.
Enter Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors). Both Dame and Donnie were close as brothers in the foster system. Even after Donnie was adopted, the older Damien would drive to his residence after bedtime, and the two would go to unsanctioned boxing events. Dame would box and put on a show for the gamblers in the crowd; Donnie watched from the corner, doing his best to control his enthusiasm. One quick knockout and a night of wilding see their paths altered. Donnie becomes the in-ring success while Dame is far outside looking in. Donnie’s home is a squared circle. Dame’s home is a prison cell.
Years pass, and the brotherly love the two had has been replaced with hate. For Damien, at least. Now out of prison, he’s eager to prove that he was meant to be a boxing champion.
Close as brothers to sibling rivals, CREED III is straight and to the point. We know the game from when we first encounter Majors leaning against Jordan’s Rolls Royce — reacquaintance, reclamation, and revenge.
Boxing is called the “sweet science” for a reason. It’s strategy. Knowing when to defend and when to move forward. Life should be about moving forward, not back. Dwell on the past, and it can end you. This is Donnie. Dame, however, has been living in the past, and it has fueled his present. What becomes of the future can only be settled with blood, sweat, and padded fists.
Unlike its predecessors, CREED III isn’t born from legacy but from livelihood. Majors carries himself like a chameleon in scenes with Jordan and briefly opposite Thompson. One bad decision crushed his dream and threw away the key for good measure. Uncaged, Damien is calculating and exacting. He makes his turn as Kang in the third ANT-MAN movie look like a joke.
Michael B. Jordan’s love of anime flourishes in the final bout. He gives us a fight the likes we’ve never had in the series. Surrounding elements dissipate to provide us with a hero, villain, and chimerical representation of the emotional pain they have walled until this culmination. It is exacting in its presentation and will likely lead to Jordan spending more time behind a camera instead of in front.
Where the series heads from here is uncertain if it moves forward at all. CREED III feels complete in telling Adonis’s story. But if the franchise money is there, another round or two wouldn’t surprise me.
Grade: B
