Bullet Points: Creed III
Michael B. Jordan continues the Rocky tradition both in front of and behind the camera in Creed III, which in and of itself is a tradition dating back to 1979’s Rocky II when Sylvester Stallone both starred in and directed the sequel to the 1976 classic.
- Back in the Day: Creed III begins in 2002, where a 15 year old Adonis Creed is running with his friend/Golden Glove boxer, Damian Anderson. Damian’s future in the boxing world looks bright, until an incident outside of a liquor store changes the course of Damian’s life forever. Damian ends up in prison. while Adonis was able to runaway during the chaos. This kept Adonis out of trouble, but it was a night that he could only hope to forget.
- Going Out on Top: Fast forward and we see Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) successfully defending his Heavyweight Title in South Africa for the final time. Adonis officially retires after the match, but is hardly out of the fight game. Adonis still has his gym that he runs with Tony “Little Duke” Burton (Wood Harris) and Adonis also finds himself on the promotions end of the business, getting fights for the new reigning champion Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez).
- The Past Comes Back: Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) is out of prison and it doesn’t take him long to look up his old buddy Adonis. Damian watched Adonis live the life that he wanted for himself while he was locked up. Now Damian with a huge chip on his shoulder makes it clear that he wants a shot at Felix Chavez and eventually proves he is willing to do so by any means necessary. Damian’s return has dredged up that night that Adonis never wanted to think about again and is causing strife with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson), his mother Mary-Anne (Phylicia Rashad) and even Little Duke.
- BOLA: If you’ve seen the trailer or any of the commercials for Creed III, you already know the solution to Adonis’ problem… he needs to come out of retirement and challenge his former friend to the fight so big it had to be held at Dodger Stadium. And I will say, for what was basically a paint by numbers story with just about every Rocky trope possible, the Battle of Los Angeles between Adonis Creed and “Diamond” Damian Anderson had some unique elements and imagery to it that I had never seen in a “final fight” before, possibly for good reason.
If you are going into Creed III looking for surprises, you will be greatly disappointed. Rocky isn’t in the crowd to cheer on Adonis nor does he call Adonis before the big fight with some words of wisdom. Adonis is also not trained by the ghost of Apollo Creed, No Retreat, No Surrender style. On the flip side, Clubber Lang is not the trainer for Damian Anderson and there’s no sign of Ivan Drago, although his son Viktor is back.
If you were a fan of the previous Creed movies and more importantly the character of Adonis Creed, you’ll likely enjoy spending another 2 hours with him and his family in Creed III. Jonathan Majors’ Damian makes for a great and believable adversary… you can almost find yourself rooting for Damian, UNTIL he starts crossing lines he shouldn’t.
After watching Creed III, I am not sure if we will get (or need) a Creed IV, but I am sure I have some Bonus Bullet Points for you…
- Familiar Voices: I couldn’t help but recognize the voices of some former WWE commentators calling the boxing action in Creed III. Todd Grisham was there as the DAZN announcer and Mauro Ranallo was there as the Showtime announcer… which makes sense because those are their actual current jobs.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Adonis Creed dress up in a frog costume and have a tea party with his daughter Amara, then Creed III is the movie for you.
- Product Placement: You may be thirsty for some cognac while watching Creed III due to all the Hennessy product placement.
- Training Montage Alert: I mentioned earlier that Creed III used as many Rocky tropes as possible and that includes the greatest Rocky trope of them all, THE TRAINING MONTAGE!
