Creed III fails to land its haymaker
Creed III. // Courtesy MGM Studios
It may be one of those overlooked factoids, but the Rocky franchise exists now in rarified air. Crossing over into the new Creed saga, surviving for six decades puts it alongside the likes of The Fast & Furious, Star Trek, and Star Wars as some of the longest-running film franchises ever. With such a coveted title comes one thing that every contender has to face: fatigue. As entertaining and compelling as Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut is at times, Creed III just misses the mark when it comes to attempting to be the reigning champ in this ninth rumble.
The film begins as Adonis Creed (Jordan) celebrates his third retirement anniversary from boxing. He’s decided to stay a busy man. Bianca (Tessa Thompson), his wife, is a mega music producer and writer with several gold records. Their daughter Amara is deaf (Mila Davis-Kebt, who is deaf in real life). She is an actress who is smart as a whip but also a handful. As great as everything seems, it gets upended by the arrival of Damian “Dame” Anderson, once deemed a boxing prodigy and childhood friend of Adonis. Set behind bars for most of his adult life, Dame is set to take what he feels is rightfully his, with or without his surrogate brother’s help.
Compared to previous films, Dame presents an interesting foe for the lead of a boxing movie. Before now, both Rocky and Adonis faced off with brutes. Save for Apollo, of course. Overcoming their foe was a matter of mixing finesse and heart. Here though, that’s not the case. It’s not just that Dame has a chip on his shoulder. Making up for lost time, his anger comes from a place of hurt and sadness.
Not hurting matters is saddling Majors with a decently complex character in such a simple movie. For the second time in just a matter of weeks—since the release of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania—proves he is a star. Crafting the portrayal of a man who is so emotionally stunted that you can see the child hiding behind his hulking frame, but Majors conveys that sense with ease. It’s the perfect marriage of an actor fully committing and a director willing to let his co-star stand bright in the spotlight.
Just as throngs of internet denizens argue what the “perfect” or “preferred” runtime of a movie is, Creed III is the prime example that it doesn’t matter. A film should be as long as it needs to be to tell its story to completion. That’s not the case here. Running 15-20 minutes shorter than Creed II and Creed, respectively, the gap is painfully felt.
Jordan and screenwriters Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin attempt to cram too many ideas and threads into a narrow space. Elements like detailed letters from prison, Dame’s Machiavellian plotting, Adonis’ struggle to communicate with anything but his fists, Bianca and Mary Anne’s (Phylicia Rashad) health, and Amara’s school strife are tossed to the side to get to the inevitable bits the audience already knows are coming.
Though billed as boxing dramas, the Creed (and Rocky) movies have been more about the strength of their characters and not just the showy bits. By leaving so many threads dangling and suddenly jumping to a fight (one that sees a character toss their entire philosophy aside off-screen), it creates a whiplash wrapped up in disappointment.
At the same time, Jordan uses his space to leave an impression on a smaller scale, such as having a large chunk of the movie’s communication handled via American Sign Language. That might not seem vastly important, but in a Hollywood production like this, it means the world.
Even with the odd pacing and seemingly missing story beats, it’s never enough to truly sink Creed III. To be honest, that’s somewhat indicative of the legacy shared by this overall universe, where several hokey outings are the norm. In many cases, the less-than-great entries are the ones that became the most beloved. Thanks to the terrific energy from Majors in front of the camera and Jordan’s command from behind the camera, the film is still an entertaining romp that, for the most part, manages to go the distance.
