Creed III Review: Not just another boxing film
Michael B Jordan makes a debut as a director with Creed III– the story of Adonis “Donnie” Creed.
To the uninitiated, Adonis is the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa’s (Sylvester Stallone) foe turned best friend. The Rocky franchise in itself was a huge success and remains to date one of the most successful film franchises. Creed has huge shoes to fill, especially without Stallone in the movie. The earlier two outings had Stallone train Creed (Michael B Jordan). Eight films and 47 years later, Stallone is absent.
The storyline is simple –Donnie has had a successful boxing career, is retired and famous. He is enjoying his life as a doting father and a supportive husband to his music producer wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) in Los Angeles.
Enter Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors). A flashback shows Creed Jr as a right-hand man of rising-star fighter “Diamond Dame,” and the two get caught up in a violent tussle outside a liquor store. Fast forward to the present. Dame is out of prison after serving a long sentence. He wants to have a shot at the life that was snatched away from him. Guilt ridden Donnie allows Dame to train at his club and this is where things get out of hand.
Behind the scenes of the happy family is Bianca’s suspicion that Creed Jr is hiding his past as the two work to parent their young daughter (Mila Davis-Kent). A la Rocky, Creed Jr is forced to don the gloves once again. Unlike Rocky’s David versus Goliath, this time around it is Able who is forced to fight against Cane. To reveal further would be criminal.
