Jonah Naplan   March 3, 2023

“Creed III” is probably the weakest in the trilogy, but don’t take that the wrong way. 2015’s “Creed” was an excellent origin piece for Adonis Creed, the titular son of the famed Apollo Creed. It was a heartfelt and powerful boxing movie that reevaluated the basic Rocky movie formula. In 2018 came a sequel, “Creed II,” and I found parts of that movie to be even better than the former. “II” was a secondary knob, and had riveting ties back to “Rocky IV,” the quintessential artisan-crafted piece of the mid-eighties. The newest “Creed III” is a film quite different from those two, firstly because of an absence of Sylvester Stallone as the iconic Rocky Balboa, but also because of the story it tells, and Michael B. Jordan’s turn as the master in front of and behind the camera. Jordan is still an up and coming auteur, and his film hints to a promising future. But Michael B. often makes the disappointing miscalculation of going with some of the most basic plot beats to implement into a premise needing more variety. “Creed III” is an exciting boxing match, but we already know how it ends.

“Creed III” opens with scenes of Los Angeles in 2002. A young Adonis Creed sneaks out of his bedroom on a late night to meet up with his best friend and fellow aspiring boxer, Damian “Dame” Anderson, and then the two attend underground boxing matches in what looks like a dangerous part of the city. After getting into a violent confrontation at a liquor store one night, the two part ways—Adonis ends up retaining the esteemed crown of World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, while Damian is thrown in prison for 18 years. Then, through an expertly timed transition, the film tosses us 15 years into the future. Adonis is living the boxing career that Damian always dreamed of. Cut to another time jump to present day. Adonis is happily retired in the Hollywood Hills with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and deaf daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Damian has just been released from prison and wants desperately to get back into the boxing world. The two will soon cross paths.

Damian is played by Jonathan Majors—his second role in two weeks after Kang the Conqueror. I found Kang to be the best part of “Quantumania,” but Majors might just be even better here. There’s a certain novelty to watching a Killmonger v. Kang matchup once the tension in the third act begins to rise. Jonathan Majors proves once again that he’s one of the absolute best up-and-coming actors currently working in Hollywood, alongside Michael B. Jordan who seems to have found his niche with these movies a while ago.

Jordan does fine work with his directorial debut, but sometimes his amateurish choices are a little too evident. In terms of directorial style, Jordan is a little hit or miss. But nevertheless, there are several choices I admired. Parts of the climactic training montage and boxing match are commendable, as are all of the emotional beats, most of which involve Creed’s family dynamic. I’ve heard some critics claim that Creed’s final fight takes great anime influence, and I think I can spot certain areas in which this is true. There’s a segment during the final fight in which the roaring fans engulfing the ring dissipate into thin air, and Damian and Creed are left standing there alone. The camera and editing choices in this sequence will rub some the wrong way. I found it to be refreshingly unique, and a nice way to change up the cliched Rocky formula. Dame is one of the most formidable Rocky opponents since Apollo started it all. He is a character who feels the desperation to continue fighting because it makes him feel seen. In a sense, we can resonate with him.

The best parts of “Creed III” center on these two opponents—a relationship that took a long, eighteen-year pause, and can’t be repaired the same way again. How Jordan and his writers—Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin—convey this, is through suspense, bitter longing, regret, and denial. The riveting tension that begins to hype up, scene after scene, is a virtue filled with ambition.

At its core, “Creed III” really is a versatile buddy story about two friends whose relationship starts to decline as the years go on. But don’t expect “The Banshees of Inisherin.” “Creed III” may be more than just a film about muscular men hitting the crap out of each other on a fundamentally emotional level, but the movie falls flat when it deviates away from individuality, and falls subject to platitude at some inconvenient times. It’s predictable, and some of that fault could be blamed towards the trailers.

But similar to the other two movies, “Creed III” knows its place. What the movie lacks in surprise, it makes up for in a well shot, smartly paced, and sometimes painfully grounded boxing match between Dame and Creed. Michael B. Jordan finds just the right amount of cool perspective slo-mo shots, counterbalanced with widescreen frames to match his editing techniques and unique sound mixing. “Creed III” is a very stylish movie, but it doesn’t at all put its style over substance.

The movie has a lot to work with, and I almost fear that if the film were given even more plot points, it would so easily collapse. So “Creed III” lives in that perfect space in between. It threatens to only be upholstered by franchise expectations and the pressure that comes with Jordan choosing to make his directorial debut the third movie in an already successful franchise, but still manages to hold itself up either way. If Jordan chooses to make more of these movies, I’m all for it. It’s not flawless, but as far as I’m concerned, “Creed III” is another one-punch knockout.

Now playing in theaters.