Movie Review: CREED III

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 3rd, 2023 / 04:22 PM

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Mila Davis-Kent, Jose Benavidez, Selenis Leyva, Florian Munteanu
Writers: Keenan Coogler & Zach Baylin, story by Ryan Coogler and Keenan Coogler & Zach Baylin, based on characters created by Sylvester Stallone
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Distributor: M-G-M
Release Date: March 3, 2023

After starring in the previous two CREED movies (CREED in 2015, CREED II in 2018), not to mention all his other strong acting work, Michael B. Jordan has earned the right to direct CREED III. He certainly knows his character, Adonis “Donnie” Creed, nee Johnson, as well or better than anyone else involved in the project.

The good news is that Jordan proves he’s up to the task. He is generous with his fellow actors, and he knows how to stage and film boxing matches with flair. The better news is that Jonathan Majors plays opposite Jordan this time around as Donnie’s old childhood friend Damian Anderson.

Donnie and Dame grew up together in the youth home. Dame was a young Golden Gloves champion until an incident, slowly pieced together in multiple flashbacks, landed him in jail for eighteen years.

Meanwhile, since winning his Champion of the World title in CREED II, Donnie has retired from boxing. He’s now a boxing promoter and gym owner. Most of all, he’s a family man, loving husband to wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson, reprising her role from the first two films) and proud-as-punch papa to their little daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent, who is entirely adorable).

It is worth noting that Amara is deaf. This isn’t a plot fulcrum, or something that Donnie and Bianca feel they need to fix. Amara’s deafness is simply accepted as a fact of life, which is refreshing.

Instead, the story revolves primarily around what happens when Dame reconnects with Donnie. Donnie feels that he owes Dame, and is happy to give him a job at the gym, but he’s taken aback by what Dane really wants – a shot at the world championship title.

It’s not hard to guess where this is going, as parts of the narrative seem to come straight out of episodes of WWE (yes, that’s wrestling and this is boxing, but that’s how familiar some of this is). The speed with which things develop is likewise questionable, but it’s not outrageous for the genre.

There’s no getting around the training sequence clichés, but Jordan and writers Keenan Coogler & Zach Baylin, working from a story they crafted with Ryan Coogler, make some intriguing, impactful choices for the climactic boxing match. When we’re meant to feel that the opponents see nothing in the world but each other, they come up with a novel visual and aural way of conveying this.

Jordan finds the right balance of reason, charm and rage in his portrayal of Creed. Thompson gives dimension to Bianca, even if we wonder why the character hasn’t long since insisted that her husband get some psychotherapy (not the performer’s fault). Majors provides a multitude of emotions along with Dame’s overriding sense of righteous grievance, from bravado to raw-nerve vulnerability.

It’s a little odd that Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa isn’t even mentioned in CREED III, seeing that Rocky was Creed’s trainer in the first two films, which are spun off from the ROCKY franchise. Since it’s been hinted at publicly that Stallone is contemplating another ROCKY film, and he’s a producer here, perhaps nobody wanted to have dialogue that might contradict whatever Stallone has in mind.

CREED III doesn’t break major thematic ground, but it has powerful performances, charming family dynamics, and well-choreographed fights. Its aim isn’t huge, but it hits its thematic targets.

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