Creed III (2023)

March 10, 2023 10:25 PM

After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has been thriving in both his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damien Anderson (Jonathan Majors), resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damien - a fighter who has nothing to lose.

You know what this movie is going to be like: the old formula overlaid with moderate enlightenment (Tessa Thompson, Adonis's wife, as about a realized woman character as you're going to get in this genre; everyone signing with their deaf daughter taken for granted). Jordan as director is better at competently hitting the familiar beats than introducing anything new; still, nothing goes seriously awry. As an actor, of course he is overqualified for this role, but within its limits he's clearly trying to put forth a particular vision of Black masculinity you have to respect. Majors shows occasional flashes of the mournful, yearning quality that was more to the fore in his other big role this spring, Kang, that honestly makes the climactic fight feel a lot sadder than I think it was intended to be. Anyway, no real surprises; it's a Rocky movie. Guess who wins.

posted by praemunire (1 comment total)

It was slickly made and full of pathos and heart. I would say its only issues is it seems like the emotional story sort of gets runs out of steam, hastily reaching a head in that one pre-final match conversation between Adonis and his wife; and how the rules on how to become a heavyweight champion of the world in this world make no sense (spoilers, naturally).
posted by Apocryphon at 11:07 PM on March 11, 2023