Rocky Balboa is one of cinema’s most beloved heroes. After creating and portraying the character in 1976’s Best Picture winner, Sylvester Stallone went on to play the Italian Stallion seven more times, earning a second Oscar nomination for his supporting work in Creed (2015). Rocky is such an icon that a statue bearing his image is still a popular tourist destination in Philadelphia.
So it’s quite a feat that Stallone’s absence is never once noticeable in Creed III. Michael B. Jordan triumphantly makes the franchise his own and confirms that Adonis Creed, the son of Rocky’s nemesis-turned-friend Apollo Creed, is a compelling character in his own right. Creed III is also Jordan’s directorial debut, and he delivers an energetic and entertaining entry that breathes new visual life into a nearly 50-year-old series.
Set a few years after Adonis’ fight with Viktor Drago, Creed III opens with the fighter retired from boxing, settling into family life with his wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). He’s happy to have tea parties with Amara, bug Bianca as she’s laying down tracks in her studio, and keep an eye on the fighters at his gym. But it’s not long before Adonis’ troubled past is brought back to the surface, when old friend Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors) comes calling. Damian is an old friend from Adonis’ childhood, recently out of prison for pulling a gun on some men who were threatening Adonis when they were kids. The champ feels some guilt for his part in his friend’s troubles and agrees to set him up with a trainer – but it’s not long before Damian’s anger pits him against his old pal and forces Adonis back into the ring.
The Rocky franchise famously served as a sort-of proxy for Stallone’s career; the more the actor’s stock rose, the more Balboa’s status grew, and by Rocky III and Rocky IV, the character lost much of the relatable lovability he had in the first film and became an action hero at best, a cartoon at worst. By the fourth entry, he served as a stand-in for America itself, fighting not against his own demons but for the concept of freedom.
Jordan, working from a script by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, wisely continues to keep the Creed franchise grounded and centered on Adonis’ struggles to rise above his past. Where the first two films focused on him reconciling with his father’s legacy, Creed III deals with issues of childhood guilt and survivor’s remorse. Rather than the caricatured bullies of Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago, Majors’ Damian is a more complicated antagonist. He’s angry about missing his opportunity to make something of himself, and resentful of his friend’s immense success. Sitting comfortably in his spacious mansion, Adonis also struggles with whether he deserves what he has, and what he may owe his old friend. There are also concerns about his mother’s (Phylicia Rashad) health and Amara’s deafness and anger issues that continue to flesh out the character’s dynamics.
As Adonis, Jordan continues to navigate charismatic joy and decency as well as righteous anger and vulnerability. Where Rocky devolved at times into a one-note, flawless good guy, Jordan plays Adonis with fractures, prone to shutting out the people he loves and constantly wrestling with his own demons. Stallone’s presence in the middle films of his franchise became focused on how jacked he could be; while Jordan handles the many physical demands of the film well, he’s best in the movie’s dramatic moments, be it the tender romance with Bianca and the light humor of fatherhood, or the weightier scenes with Rashad and Majors.
Majors is just coming off his much-hyped villain turn in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a movie in which he gave a strong performance despite a script that failed to create much of a character. He’s stronger here. Damian is almost the shadow version of Adonis or Rocky, a nobody who thinks he’s entitled to his shot at stardom. Majors is an intimidating physical presence and a solid antagonist, but he also isn’t a pure villain. He’s as angry and resentful as Adonis once was, and the film never treated him as a one-note threat, even suggesting in the end that Damian could follow in the footsteps of Apollo Creed by going from a villain to an ally. It’s strong work, and while Creed III is relatively light on boxing sequences – there are only three matches in the film – the scenes where Adonis and Damian go toe to toe emotionally are just as riveting as any action scene.
Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Creed in “CREED III.” Eli Ade © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved CREED is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
But when the action comes, Jordan delivers a jolt of visual energy. He focuses on the brutality of the in-ring violence when necessary, but seems more interested in getting the audience into Adonis’ brain through slow motion and close-ups. The film’s requisite montage sequence is energetic and fun – although following up Adonis’ trainer telling him he’s “old and broken” with a shot of the fighter pulling a plane across a runway is worth a laugh. Nine films in, it’s rare for a franchise to find new moves, but the final match is one of the most aesthetically arresting of the series, drawing from video games and anime to isolate its boxers and represent the battle between past and present that’s happening between them. It’s a knock-out sequence (pun intended), and one of the most riveting fights in the saga.
Creed III clocks in at just a hair under two hours, but could probably use a bit more time. The first half sets up storylines regarding Amara’s temper and health issues with Adonis’ mom. But once the film hits its midpoint and sets up the final conflict, it abandons them to barrel ahead to the final fight. This particularly hurts Thompson, whose character was set up in the first Creed with a fascinating personal struggle that the sequels have only largely paid lip service to, and the film never quite resolves the conflict between Adonis and Bianca regarding Amara’s temper issues. What starts off as a drama with several intriguing threads becomes a bit more formulaic in its final stretch, but it’s never not entertaining.
The film ultimately leaves it up in the air whether this film caps a trilogy or if there will be more stories to bring Adonis back in the ring. While ending now would make this one of the more successful franchises in Hollywood, one of the best things to be said about Creed III is that this reviewer would be happy to go a few more rounds with this champ.
