‘The higher you get, the harder it gets...’
The Rocky franchise, much like its eponymous hero, is able to endure no matter how many times it seems to be dead in the water. It has survived the deaths of Mickey, Apollo Creed, Adrian and Paulie. It has survived through four decades, numerous directors and many Stallone comebacks. Creed III is proof of the unthinkable – the Rocky franchise can even survive without Rocky…
With nothing left to prove after finally defeating Ricky Conlon (Tony Bellew) in the film’s opening scene, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan – also making his directorial debut) retires from boxing in order to focus on spending time raising his hearing-impaired daughter (Mile Davis-Kent), supporting his wife (Tessa Thompson) in her music career and training the next generation of new fighters – namely Mexican prospect Felix Chavez (José Benavidez Jr.). All is going well until a ghost returns from Adonis’ past in the shape of Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) – an old friend from Creed’s adolescence recently released from prison. There are also subplots involving Creed’s daughter being picked on at school (Oh hello there, Rocky V) and the ailing health of Creed’s adopted mother Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad).
That elongated synopsis provides some insight into this film’s most prominent issue – plotting. There is simply too much plot here. Too much going on. At less than two hours there isn’t time to fully do justice to all of the disparate story threads introduced by co-writers Ryan Coogler, Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin. It’s a shame because Jordan’s direction breathes new life into the franchise – particularly in the uniformly captivating fight sequences. Majors is a canny choice as the protege turned antagonist (Rocky V? Is that you again?!) and Creed III would have benefitted from more time spent with his character – particularly after the climactic fight.
Creed III is a downgrade on the film that preceded it and it wouldn’t trouble the top five of the franchise overall, but it is probably about as good as the first post-Rocky Balboa Rocky film had any right to be and serves as proof positive that the torch has firmly been passed from Stallone to Jordan. This is no longer the Rocky franchise, the Italian Stallion isn’t even mentioned until 48 minutes into this film. No, this is now the Creed franchise, and with Creed IV already confirmed, it’ll be interesting to see how Jordan continues with this character going forward.