Rocky goad
CREED III Cert 12A ★★★★ In cinemas now
Technically, this is Rocky IX, but it’s also the first instalment of the boxing franchise made without any input from the man who invented it. And it seems the split is less than amicable, with Sylvester Stallone bemoaning the “dark space” occupied by Michael B Jordan’s Creed III.
I don’t want to stir up an argument between a screen legend and an up-and-coming actor-director. But there is an obvious way to settle it – and it involves Stallone and Jordan going head to head in a pay-for-view fight with two slickly produced training montages. At the beginning of this third spin-off flick, Adonis, illegitimate son of Rocky’s rival-turned-pal Apollo Creed, is a retired champ with his own stable of fighters.
He’s leaving his gym when he spots Jonathan Majors’ Damian leaning menacingly on his flashy motor – the first time they’ve met since the violent incident that led to Damian serving 18 years in prison.
Adonis agrees to help Damian get his boxing career back on track and introduces him to his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-kent) without realising his old pal still harbours a grudge. You don’t need to see the trailer to know the two fighters will end up sorting out their issues in the ring.
A dark back story and Majors’ soulful eyes made me feel for Damian every time Adonis landed a slow-motion punch into his big, sad face. This is not something I ever experienced when Rocky gave Ivan Drago or Clubber Lang their well-deserved pastings.
Creed III is far from perfect, there are some baggy plot threads and a jarring, momentum-sapping surreal sequence.
But this sense of split loyalties makes it one of the saga’s punchiest and more grown-up finales in the series.
‘‘ Our split loyalties make it one of the punchiest finales in the Rocky series