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Creed and Creed II both work on a fundamental level, however too much of the plot of those movies is focused on the past. Between exploring Rocky in his new role as a mentor in Creed and exploring the impact of the Rocky/Drago fight and Drago’s quest for revenge on Rocky in Creed II, the story of Adonis Creed has taken a back seat to an extent in exchange for allowing him to act as a conduit to explore the characters around him. Creed III changes that up and allows Adonis to really grapple with his past and move past while also delivering both one of the strongest antagonists in franchise history and some of the most kinetic action sequences in recent years.
Creed III follows Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) who has since retired from boxing and has moved into a coaching role for the new heavy-weight world champion Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez). After serving 18 years in prison, his childhood friend Damian (Jonathan Majors) comes back with aspirations to be the new world champion and take back the life that he thinks Adonis stole from him. Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Selenis Leyva, Florian Munteanu, and Stephen A. Smith also star.
The biggest success of the movie is making Damien into a character whom the viewer can empathize with. The strongest villains in recent times have been ones where the viewer can understand where they’re coming from and why they’re acting the way they are. From the beginning, Damien is portrayed as someone who has legitimate reasons to feel the way he does about Adonis and, while he acts out in ways that are way out of line, the viewer can understand why he is taking the steps that he is.
The fights are beautifully shot, kinetic, brutal, and manage to carry the emotion of the sequences based on what they need to carry. The third act fight which is the marquee matchup between Damien and Adonis especially has this with a more abstract and conceptual approach to showcasing the emotional gravitas behind these two characters coming to blows and allowing for a greater exploration of the mindsets of both characters. The earlier fights also have interesting use of slow motion and framing where one looks like it is shot kind of like the fights in Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and the other is shot to look like the viewer is watching a pay-per-view event on Showtime.
If there is a problem with this movie, and it’s not even specifically this movie’s fault, it is that it has to do the heavy lifting of laying out the entire history between Damien and Adonis. This should have been spread out across the preceding two entries so that when the narrative reaches the brother vs brother fight at the end, there is more time to lay out Damien’s turn. Because Damien is only ever existing within the narrative of Creed III, his descent feels more like a foregone conclusion because the movie needs an antagonist rather than a tragic turn. It still works, however it could have worked better if Creed and Creed II did more to set it up.
Creed III continues what its predecessors did and elevates the source material beyond where it began with innovative visuals and a deeply emotional story that carries the audience’s attention even through the times when characters are not beating the tar out of each other. It should be seen in theaters on the largest screen possible and has set itself as an early frontrunner to be one of the top movies of 2023.
Final Rating: 9.5/10
