When Michael B. Jordan stepped into the role of Adonis Creed in 2016, he was a star on the rise. With several high-profile television credits and a breakthrough performance in Fruitvale Station, he had started to establish himself as an actor to watch. Now, three-quarters of a decade later, Jordan has become a bonafide star, and turned Creed into its own successful franchise separate from its Rocky parentage. Now, as he laces up his boxing gloves for a third time, Jordan also takes on a new role: director.
In the five years since we last saw Adonis and his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson), their daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) is now a precocious student, getting in fights with a school bully, and eagerly watching everything her parents do. Bianca’s hearing loss has forced her to shift focus entirely away from performing and into building a successful music production career. Adonis enjoys his retirement from the ring and spends his days training the next generation of boxers.
The Creeds are living the good life. Their luxurious yet comfortably inviting home sits high up in the hills overlooking Los Angeles. Because of Amara’s deafness, ASL is the common language in their house. Even frequent visitor grandma Mary-Anne (Phylicia Rashad) has learned the language. Apart from Amara’s recent issue with fighting at school, things are going well and Jordan and Thompson in particular welcome us back into their world with a relationship that is stronger because of their weathered storms.
Of course, a challenge has to come along and this one arrives in the form of Jonathan Majors as Damian Anderson, a recent parolee and distant memory from Adonis’s childhood. As a teenager, Damian dreamed of a boxing career and was on his way until his plans were derailed. Now, released after 18 years, he wants to finish what he started and he wants Adonis to help him get there.
Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors star in CREED III — Courtesy of MGM
Majors is a great addition to the cast. It was just four years ago when he had his own breakthrough role in The Last Black Man in San Francisco. He has been unstoppable in the years since. Now, 2023 is set to be a huge year for the actor who recently joined the MCU as new big bad Kang the Conqueror. He was also the talk of Sundance in January with a transformative role as a socially awkward body builder in Magazine Dreams.
As Damian Anderson, Majors finds the delicate balance between terrifying adversary and sympathetic outcast looking to make something of his life. He endears himself to Creed’s family, with the exception of Mary-Anne who will never see him as anything other than the trouble-making kid he once was. And he knows how to push the right buttons to use Adonis’s guilt over the incident that landed Damian in prison in the first place.
As a director, Jordan finds new ways to keep the boxing part of this boxing movie fresh and interesting. With slowed-down motion and unexpected close up shots, we get to see — really see — the physical impact of a gloved fist against a rib cage or a jaw. Not just the bloodied and bruised result, but everything about the way the skin buckles and the sweat beads up. There are so many boxing movies in the world and yet this never feels tired or boring.
The one element where Creed III falls short is in a script that doesn’t fully develop Damian’s backstory, Donny’s related guilt, or the rivalry between the two. Penned by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, there seems to be a hurry to jump to the reason we watch these movies. The big, climactic fight between the two main characters. And that big fight definitely delivers. But at just under two hours, so many of the important details of the story feel untold.
Within just a few minutes of screen time, we practically jump from Damian’s release and a messy training session at the gym to the chance of a lifetime when he demands a fight for the Heavyweight title against Creed’s prize fighter Felix (Jose Benavidez). After that fight comes to a brutal finish, there is suddenly very bad blood between the two childhood friends and apparently the only way to settle it is with a rookie fighter against a retired one. The chip on Damian’s shoulder is big, but the reasons for it and for the animosity between the two aren’t given enough time to breathe. Without time to breathe, it never really feels like a fight that has to be resolved in the ring. And when that is what the entire film is leading to, this is a missed opportunity.
Still, there is more to recommend than not. Creed III is entertaining. The performances are compelling. And Michael B. Jordan is an exciting new director to watch.