Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Better than ‘Creed II,’ Jordan, Majors keep each other in line
After the frustrating push-pull of “Creed II” (2018), in which Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed engaged in a stealth battle with Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa over dominance of a popular movie franchise, “Creed III” marks a step up.
This is the ninth installment in that franchise. Stallone’s out this time. Jonathan Majors is in, and it’s a fine trade.
Right now, Majors can be found struggling with some pretty sludgy material inside green-screen purgatory in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” In “Creed III,” by contrast, the actor has somewhere to with his character’s anguished grudge match. The movie is far from perfect; the flashbacks to the main characters’ shared childhood trauma drip-drip-drip the details in ways that can get frustrating. But Jordan and Majors are the glue, and we stick with them.
Last we saw Creed, he had vanquished the son of Drago, the man who killed his father, Apollo, in the ring back in ’85 in “Rocky IV.” At the start of “Creed III,” all is roses and contentment with retired champ Adonis. He’s living in luxe Hollywood Hills serenity — all glass, no stress —with his superstar musician wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and their preteen daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Still, there are threats to the family’s happiness, as we learn in dramatic foreshadowing in scenes featuring the Creed who raised Adonis, fierce and loving Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad).
These early scenes establish what Adonis will be fighting for in the screenplay by Keenan Coogler (brother of Ryan Coogler, who directed the first “Creed”) and “King Richard” scribe
Zach Baylin. The primary conflict emerges when Adonis’ childhood friend, Damian, shows up outside Adonis’ gym after an 18year prison sentence for murder.
His own boxing dreams crushed, at least until now, Damian wants Adonis to train him fast, and hard. He’s owed that much, he says, for reasons we learn in short order. Their shrewdly acted reunion scene reassures the audience even as it unsettles Adonis: As long as Jordan and Majors are sussing each other out, in various forms of battle, “Creed III” will do the job.
What happened all those years ago? The script leaks the information at strategic junctures. “Livin’ that high life, huh?” Majors says to Jordan early on, with barely hidden envy. Majors is one of those actors who won’t settle for one simple emotion when two or three can make a potentially one-dimensional adversary so much richer.
The boxing movie genre is nothing without the idea of fighters fighting against themselves and their demons. The three bouts in “Creed III” begin with Adonis vs. “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew) in South Africa. Then comes the LA match between Damian and world champ Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez Jr.). This paves the way for the finale, pitting retired champ against unlikely new phenom, Jordan vs. Majors.
I don’t know if the movie solves the queasiness at its core. Maybe it’s just my own, regarding a scenario in which Adonis is the guy with everything, the one we’re supposed to root for, against Damian, the unblessed one with nothing but bad memories and an emotional debt he’s trying to collect with his fists. But that’s how it is with boxing films. Stories about unknowns on the way up are easy. Stories about legends trying to find the sleeping warrior within are harder.
MPA rating: PG-13 (for intense sports action, violence and some strong language) Running time: 1:56 How to watch: In theaters