Before Top Gun Maverick came along and created the perfect legacy sequel, the Creed franchise was the best example of how to extend a franchise and create a new one at the same time.
Having climbed the ranks of the boxing world, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has now retired on a high note. He dedicates his post-career life to being a family man and overseeing his gym. Just as life has seemed to calm down, an old friend has arrived into town.
Through flashbacks, we see the friendship between Adonis and Dame (Jonathan Majors) as they were teens and what lead to Dame’s imprisonment. With him being out of prison, he asks Creed for a chance at the title belt, but doing a favor for a friend adds chaos to Creed’s life.
Sylvester Stallone is not in this film to be the emotional core and mentor for Creed (he is missed). Instead Creed relies on his wife (Tessa Thompson), his daughter (Mila-Davis Kent), and his mother (Phylicia Rashad). Though, now that his old friend is causing trouble, Creed mentally shuts down. This is one of those movies where keeping secrets creates far too much wasted time and drags down the story.
There is a formula to each movie in the franchise. There needs to be enough drama to justify the eventual bouts, and vice versa. Even though Rocky or Adonis have proven themselves champions in their own right, we as an audience still needed to believe they were underdogs. Yet somehow, here in Creed 3, the backstory does not have enough weight to it to carry the plot. And even if it did, there isn’t enough done to build the character and prowess of Dame to be the antagonist.
Jonathan Majors plays another deeply troubled strong-silent type. His rise to prominence within the story doesn’t ever feel earned. He’s tough as nails and crazy intimidating to be sure, but (and this is gonna sound crazy) this movie could have taken a few lessons from Rocky V. When Rocky trained eventual antagonist, Tommy Gunn, we got to see just how he rose the ranks. And sure, montages are cheesy, but this series perfected the montage. This movie gets so lost in its second act, that it stumbles to get to a point that sets up the final battle.
However, the fights are where this movie soars. Michael B. Jordan directs this movie and immediately proves his competence. You can feel the passion behind the camera when it comes to the choreography of the camera and the blocking of the fighters. Jordan has claimed that his love of larger-than-life anime battles inspires the matches in this movie and he’s not wrong. There are some fantastic methodical moments of strategy shown that elevate the action previously seen in this franchise. The final fight, in particular, takes Creed and Dame and sets them up as bitter anime-inspired rivals. The world and crowd behind them disappear as they fight in a thematic battleground. I love how the fights are constructed and I wish that this movie had more of them.
I’d say that Creed III has proven that the franchise has run out of steam, but the Rocky franchise somehow did more with less. The logical leaps within the story hold this movie back from the superior two movies. Jordan and Majors are more than capable in their roles, but the highlights belong to the fights. There is some clever camerawork that frames the matches, which supplement the choreography and epic score. This isn’t a bad movie, but it’s far from great. C+
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