'Creed III' Is More Of A Tie Than A Knockout
A series of conveniently placed events propels Creed III into a land of familiarity. Without mentioning Rocky, Creed III attempts to pave its path in the Rocky (now Creed) legacy. As the poster says, "you can't run from your past," and neither can Creed III stand victoriously above its predecessors. Creed III is another boxing movie that uses its fists to lift the audience's spirit. But what does Creed III say besides the standard "be a champ, don't give up" power drink slogan? There's something heartfelt yet hollow in Creed III that generates more of a "meh" than a standing ovation.
Living off the riches from his boxing championship days, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) enjoys an early retirement in his mid-thirties. Life for Adonis is good. He's made a family with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and Adonis' daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) is a little angel that gets along lovingly with her father. When not tending to his family, Adonis runs a gym for the next up-and-coming fighters.
One day a familiar face comes to the gym. Damian Anderson (Jonathon Majors) shares a childhood bond with Adonis where together as boys they committed crimes. One got locked up; the other didn’t. Back from prison, Damian wants a shot at the title with Adonis on his side as coach. If you've seen Rocky V, then you can see where this story is headed. In fact, if you've seen any Rocky movie, you can see where the film is going. Creed III is a detriment to its narrative style since it was told once, then again, and again until we all know the plot.
There's an opponent our protagonist must face. Defeating them is the goal of the film. Rocky Balboa had to conquer Apollo Creed to become the world champion. Then he had to beat Ivan Drago, as revenge for killing Apollo Creed in the ring. Each film has an opponent the main character has to beat for personal reasons. Sometimes it's an enormous Russian, others it's a protégé turned enemy like Tommy was to Rocky.
Creed III is an updated Rocky film where Rocky isn't only absent, but any mention of him isn't present at all. Director and star Michael B. Jordan aims to continue what Ryan Coogler did right in Creed by breaking away from Rocky as a fighter, focusing on an entirely new character for the audience to get behind. Creed was a fine example of directorial craftsmanship, which created its new theme and characters while preserving the older cast from the past. Creed III is a film entirely reliant on newer players. Thankfully the cast in this film holds their own.
Tessa Thompson reprises her role as Bianca. How much she brings to the film is enough. Not too much, not too little. She's more or less a character relegated to being the loving wife who challenges her man when he needs to be. Mila Davis-Kent is the little darling of the film. Inheriting her mother's hearing problems, Mila relies on American Sign Language to communicate with her parents. Michael B. Jordan does an impressive job wearing multiple hats at once, being the director and star of the film. Jordan hits his emotional notes when needed and certainly got in shape for the role. Matching Jordan's pecs are Jonathon Majors, who once again delivers a standout performance in a film.
Damian Anderson is a complicated person. Jonathon Majors' natural charm can be intentionally misleading, fooling Adonis into thinking his intentions are good. Through Majors' welcoming persona, we're led to believe something positive about his character before learning the negative.
One of the reasons audiences flock to Rocky films is to see the boxing put on screen. Michael B. Jordan takes some notes from Ryan Coogler's book incorporating the steady cam to float around the ring, bringing us into action. When an opponent gets hit, the camera cuts to a shot running at an extremely high frame rate, capturing every collision in beautiful detail. With slow-mo, the blood and sweat fly on the screen, making you feel the exhaustion these fighters must be enduring.
For as impressive as the camera work is, the editing can cut too often, making for some jumpy edits. What isn't jumpy is the amount of space Michael B. Jordan gives his actors to breathe. During dialogue exchanges, Jordan allows time for the actors to pause as the frame relies more on the actors' reactions than the dialogue being fed to them.
What isn't given much room to breathe is the film's structure. When the picture starts, it takes its time, clearly establishing the childhood relationship between Adonis and Damian. By the middle act, the film jumps between periods at a jarring pace. Many major moments happen offscreen that cause the time hops to be confusing. Without spoiling the plot, many moments had me going, "how did we get here already?"
On its own, Creed III is a perfectly fine usage of two hours that isn't any resounding success. Creed III is as normal as an average uplifting boxing film can be. It's all familiar territory compounded with plot conveniences that otherwise wouldn't happen in real life. There's an attempt from Michael B. Jordan to say something about children trying to survive in an inner city and violence not being the overall answer to every problem.
It's hard to believe Adonis Creed when he tells his daughter that violence isn't the solution when he trains her on the punching bags two seconds later. There's a romanticism in violence through every Rocky film that's alarming. Rocky V encouraged street fighting, and Creed III attempts to elicit cheers when one little girl punches another. The film's overall message is to face your past head-on. The past, in this case, being Jonathon Banks' character. That's fine, but it's not enough gas to keep the Creed train running for further iterations. It may be time to take a gentle bow and put the gloves away.
