The contemporary reboot of the Rocky franchise, Creed, following Adonis Creed son of boxing legend Apollo Creed, found its sweet spot among today’s audiences not only because of its pedigree – which admittedly is its biggest selling point – but also cause it filled a gap in the market for an underserved segment establishing itself as the undisputed (think that’s another boxing film) action-sports/drama that was a well balanced blend of hard-hitting, adrenaline-inducing action commingled with slice of life emotion drama.
Creed III is set a few years after the events of its 2018 prequel picking up after the resolution of the most high stakes feud the film’s creator’s could conjure (a story of retribution literally decades in the making, a new generation rematch between Creed and Drago serving as the spiritual successor to the 1985 classic Rocky IV), capping any potential for any plot or character development that movie goers could resonate with. The film follows the titular character, Adonis Creed – played by Michael B. Jordan – who has settled into the qoutidian lifestyle of retirement that’s disrupted after reuniting with his childhood friend, Damian – played by Jonathan Majors – who was incarcerated for an altercation from their past and rather unsurprisingly has boxing roots and now seeks to accomplish an unfulfilled dream to be “champion.” Creed II’s climactic showing was naturally going to be tough to follow and would take a stroke of genius to create something comparable so what’s a Hollywood exec to do? Leave money on the table? No! I know, let’s put Michael B. Jordan in the director’s chair so if it flops he could be the fall guy.
Creed III Trailer
To paraphrase the film’s tagline, like ‘the past’, there’s no running away from it, in spite of its acclaim Creed is highly formulaic so developing a reasonably enjoyable plot is possible provided the right set-pieces; a sprinkle of the sportsman’s equivalent of work-life balance, here, a contender that will present the protagonist with ostensibly insurmountable odds, there, dramatizations of the psychological and physical strain of the ordeal of a face-off between the ropes, a training montage and for God’s sake ROCKY MUST BE IN THIS THING! And guess what? Which segues into addressing the elephant in the room or lack thereof, Sylvester Stallone isn’t in this one! I mean he’s hardly the go to actor to bring gravitas to the screen but he’s inextricably linked to the film’s legacy yet shockingly his absence goes without so much as a mention, almost like he never existed. Rocky’s hard-won wisdom to Adonis’ brash, swashbuckling pride is a relationship dynamic that when excluded is a glaring omission one can’t simply patch over with a character we barely know.
Rocky’s hard-won wisdom to Adonis’ brash, swashbuckling pride is a relationship dynamic that when excluded is a glaring omission one can’t simply one can’t simply patch over with a character we barely know.
Bringing us to the contender/antagonist, Damian. Like the tagline I referred to earlier alludes to, these two have got history told through flashbacks that is intended to introduce tension between the leads but ultimately just shoehorns a character that has no business being there (Fast 9 is no place to take writing cues).
For a considerable amount of Creed III’s runtime Damian isn’t painted as a villain – although he blatantly throws down the gauntlet on their first encounter – his machiavellian approach to pursuing his goals and rough and ready persona was supposed to be ominous except it just came off as uncouth. Seriously the lack of polish on this guy is just unbelieveable, I mean he got by in official title fights using the sort of cheap-shots that would only fly in the WWE. That’s the guy whose threat looms so large that it would have to force Creed out of retirement? Especially since retirement was such a charmed life for him; raising his hearing impaired daughter who either genetically is a natural-born fighter or is the setup for the 2029 release Creed VI (take that as an official announcement I could use the buzz), maintaining the affection of his successful music producer wife (I swear Tessa Thompson was relegated to being arm candy) – so nothing interesting on the homefront except an ailing mother which doesn’t carry as much of the emotional weight it should.
At least the bouts are enthralling, right? Wrong I’m afraid. Creed, historically, through top-tier combat choreography and cinematography created fight scenes that didn’t pull back any punches resulting in astoundingly realistic yet epic in-ring moments but this time these moments are watered down replacing them with ‘camera perspective punches’ breaking tradition for Rocky/Creed’s obsessive attention to replicating a true-to-life boxing experience for the big screen. The subtitle of this review asked if Creed should throw in the towel and its a hard admission personally being a fan but it may be time to pack it in at least until the female boxing reboot (seriously guys its happening!) or here’s a thought hand the franchise back to Ryan Coogler as director/writer.
