It\u2019s certainly an elephant in the room that\u2019s never addressed in this film \u2013 not even a \u201cI wish Rock was here\u201d from Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan, who also directed), as he spends most of the movie going through a whole lotta stuff the elder Balboa could\u2019ve given him some I\u2019ve-been-there advice on. (That\u2019s partially provided in this film by former The Wire<\/em> baddie Wood Harris, returning as disapproving corner man Tony \u201cLittle Duke\u201d Evers.) After all, just as Balboa dealt with the angry, egotistical, career-obliterating ex-con Clubber Lang (still Mr. T\u2019s finest hour) in Rocky III<\/em>, Creed also goes up against an angry, egotistical, career-obliterating ex-con. But, this time, the opponent is \u2013 to paraphrase the title of the last movie I reviewed on this site<\/a> \u2013 someone Creed used to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mere weeks after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania<\/em>, Jonathan Majors shows up again<\/em> as the Big Bad in the third volume of another box office franchise. He\u2019s Damian \u201cDame\u201d Anderson, an amateur boxer and former juvenile detention center buddy of Creed\u2019s. He just got out of prison and comes to his ol\u2019 retired friend looking for a shot to be a contenda<\/em>. It turns out that Creed owes his buddy a lot; that jail stint came from Creed straight beating down a juvie employee who used to put the hurtin\u2019 on them and running away when the cops caught him and an armed Dame. (While it\u2019s implied that the guy may have done more than beat them, the movie doesn\u2019t go full Sleepers<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Creed III<\/em> is basically a film where two hella-shredded Black men who were once, literally, thick as thieves become bitter rivals. It\u2019s a story we\u2019ve seen many times before \u2013 and Jordan gives us another one. Working from a script strung together by Creed<\/em> director Ryan Coogler, his brother Keegan, and King Richard<\/em> screenwriter Zach Baylin, Jordan follows in his former co-star\u2019s footsteps and gives us a rousing yet narratively mid crowd-pleaser where the star\/director has to put a badass threat in his place. As much as Majors tries to give his pissed-off antagonist some justified gravitas, the chip Jordan and the screenwriters place on his character\u2019s shoulders does most of the acting for him. It isn\u2019t long before Dame wins his first championship and becomes a straight-up asshole Creed has to come out of retirement to set straight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, Creed III<\/em> has Jordan showing us he can be like Stallone and direct a fancy, fisticuffs-filled vanity project. Creed\u2019s fight sequences are splacked-out, visually wacky spectacles; his opening battle has him getting his Robert Downey, Jr.-as-Sherlock Holmes on<\/a> and pinpointing how he\u2019s gonna take out an opponent before it happens. Of course, when we get to Creed and Dame\u2019s climactic, sharply-orchestrated one-on-one, it\u2019s a hallucinogenic throwdown where everything from prison bars to dirty juvie mattresses pop up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Creed III<\/em>, Jordan does go all out in proving he can give audiences a sufficient fight movie. But, just like all the Rocky<\/em> pictures Stallone directed, it\u2019s mostly a mighty, mediocre show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Creed III” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Creed-IIIb-1024x576.jpg\")
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Oh yeah, Tessa Thompson is also around as Creed\u2019s musical boo, also wondering if she should step from her behind-the-scenes duties and step back in the spotlight. They also have a little, hearing-impaired girl who likes to fight. And let\u2019s not forget Phylicia Rashad \u2013 Clair Huxtable herself \u2013 is still here, causing more harm than good as Creed\u2019s mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\nC+\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n