A Rocky movie about a guy who is retired and living the good life of the rich and famous? That’s never going to work. Well, not unless you are Michael B. Jordan making a directorial debut with Creed III.
Adonis Creed (Jordan) has retired from boxing and lives in his luxury mansion with pop star wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and cute kid Amara, and mentors a new generation of heavyweight champions at the Delphi Boxing Academy along with Little Duke. Jordan, as the director, does a good job of imbuing this aspect of Creed’s life with tenderness, playfulness and heart, which provides a nice contrast to the tense introduction of Creed’s past in the form of Damien ‘Dame’ Anderson (Jonathan Majors).
Creed and Dame were together in a group home and a teenage Creed was friends with the older Dame, a Golden Glove winner and a rising star in boxing till an incident finds Creed fleeing from the scene and Dame getting arrested.
Out of prison after 18 years, Dame finds Creed outside the boxing academy and asks him for a shot at winning a big title. Burdened by the guilt of not keeping in touch with Dame, Creed recruits him as the sparring partner for reigning champ Felix Chavez. He invites Dame home only to realise that Dame isn’t friendly; rather he is out to take away Creed’s glory that he thinks should have been his.
Jonathan Majors is ruling the screens as the bad guy this year, first as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania where he was the only saving grace, and now as Creed’s friend-turned-adversary in Creed III. And he is stupendous in both. Majors plays Dame with a quiet menace that underlies every word and action and almost steals the scenes he is in. If outside the ring Dame is wrathful and entitled, in it he is vicious and mean, not always playing by the rules.
Majors provides the perfect foil for Jordan who takes Creed through a far more diverse range of emotions — from pride to guilt, joy to anger, tenderness to sorrow — making this his best performance in the role yet.
Jordan does a stellar job as first-time director, keeping the narrative simple and therefore more powerful. Creed III is not just a David vs Goliath story of the Rocky kind, it almost feels like a thriller that keeps you dreading what’s to come even though you know how the movie will end. It is what makes the familiar story of the underdog winning the day feel fresh.
Those wondering if all this means there is less of the good old one-two, don’t worry. The fight sequences — and there are quite a few — are nicely shot, and both Creed and Dame get their training montages complete with the running shots. The final fight is shot in a way that makes it more personal, reflecting the fact that this bout is not about professional rivalry but about battling demons from the past.
If Creed III is the final film in the Creed franchise, then it is a great sign-off. If not, then Creed III has set the bar high (higher than Creed II for sure) for the ones to come.
