Creed III
Having retired from the ring, Adonis Creed finds himself monitoring an old friend for an unprecedented main event, a title fight that promises to be a massacre…
Ringside: Michael B. Jordan, Mila Davis-Kent and Tessa Thompson
What’s not to like? Michael B. Jordan is growing nicely into his stardom and is here doing a Sylvester Stallone, directing himself playing a boxer. Or in the case of Adonis Creed, a former boxer who is now living in a mansion in Los Angeles, with its own ring, recording studio and rooftop lounge. It is both a museum to the former glory of the world heavyweight champ and to the success of his wife, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson), a singer-songwriter who, due to her hearing loss, has retired to focus on producing. They are the ideal success story, with Creed running his own up-market boxing academy and taking lucrative endorsements, while both of them are mentoring others in their wake. They are good, they are happy, and to top off their blessings they have a smart eight-year-old daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Amara has inherited her mother’s congenital deafness and her father’s penchant for solving issues with his fists, but otherwise their life is peachy.
However, like many a pugilist, Adonis Creed has a past and it is that past that catches up with him in the form of Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), a childhood friend who has spent the last 18 years in jail. In spite of his age (he is even older than Creed), Damian is hungry to return to boxing and is convinced that he has what it takes to overcome his lack of experience. He just needs somebody on the inside to give him a chance…
Unlike Stallone – who serves as a producer here – Jordan is an articulate presence and has an aura that is eminently appealing. Likewise, Tessa Thompson projects a warmth and intelligence and so this is a couple we truly root for, augmented by the presence of the young Mila Davis-Kent, who is deaf in real life. But this is the ninth film in the Rocky franchise, so inevitably there is a whiff of formula which one must accept as a given. Audiences are more likely to flock to Creed III for the combat in the ring than the domestic dynamic and Jordan, who plays Creed for the third time here, knows the game. When, as director, he pushes the fights full throttle, he achieves the requisite adrenalin rush but is on shakier ground when he introduces a note of fantasy, such as when the audience vanishes and the ring turns into a cage. And what would Rocky/Creed be without the training montage? – although the sight of a contender pulling a plane by ropes does rather stretch the realms of plausibility. But for what it is, Creed III jabs all the right buttons with finesse and devotees of the franchise should not be disappointed.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Mila Davis-Kent,
Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad, Selenis Leyva, José Benavidez Jr, Thaddeus J. Mixon, Spence Moore II, Tony Bellew, Kehlani, and the voice of Barry Pepper.
Dir Michael B. Jordan, Pro Irwin Winkler, Charles Winkler, William Chartoff, David Winkler, Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Elizabeth Raposo, Jonathan Glickman and Sylvester Stallone, Screenplay Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, Ph Kramer Morgenthau, Pro Des Jahmin Assa, Ed Tyler Nelson and Jessica Baclesse, Music Joseph Shirley, Costumes Lizz Wolf, Sound Aaron Glascock.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Chartoff-Winkler Productions/Proximity Media/Outlier Society-Warner Bros.
116 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 3 March 2023. Cert. 12A.
