Creed 3 opens with Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) on top of the world.

He has just retired, as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, from boxing.  Unlike other boxers (like Big George Foreman or Rocky Balboa or Creed’s father, Apollo), Donnie is not retiring because he’s been defeated or because his health is at risk.  Donnie is retiring because he has apparently worked out his anger and his issues with with his father’s legacy and now, he wants to spend some quality time with his wife (Tessa Thompson) and his daughter (Mila Davis-Kent).  Donnie, however, does remain in the world of boxing by managing the new world champion, Felix (Jose Benavidez, Jr.), and setting up a title fight between Felix and Donnie’s former rival, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu).  However, when Viktor is attacked by a mysterious assailant and left too injured to fight, Donnie has to find a new opponent for Felix and he has to do it quickly!

Interestingly enough, Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors) has just returned to town.  Donnie and Dame were childhood friends.  When they were kids, Dame was the aspiring boxer who dreamed of going to the Olympics, turning pro, and then eventually becoming the world champion.  However, those plans changed when Dame went to prison.  While Donnie was becoming world champion, Dame was serving hard time and writing letters to Donnie, all of which were hidden from Donnie by Donnie’s well-meaning mother (Phylicia Rashad).  When Dame returns home, a guilt-stricken Donnie gives Dame a job as Felix’s sparring partner and even promises to help Dame out with his late-in-life boxing career.  (As just about everyone points out, boxing is a young person’s sport and Dame is even older than Donnie.)  When Dame asks Donnie to give him the title shot against Felix, Donnie ignores everyone else’s advice and gives it to him.  Donnie justifies his decision by reminding everyone that Apollo gave Rocky a shot.

Directed by Michael B. Jordan, Creed III is an exciting and intelligent sports film that also works as a deconstruction of some of the genre’s most beloved clichés.  Donnie himself points out that everyone loves an underdog story and that’s certainly true, from Rocky to this year’s Champions.  Dame uses the world’s love for the underdog to his advantage, just to turn out to be a vicious and self-destructive fighter.  This is the film that answers the question, “What if Rocky Balboa wasn’t such a nice guy?”  Dame also uses Donnie’s guilt about the past to his advantage.  If the previous two films were all about Donnie coming to peace with the legacy of Apollo Creed, this film is about Donnie (and, to an extent, Dame) coming to peace with the legacy of Adonis Creed.

And yet, Dame himself is not a one-dimensional villain.  For much of the film, he’s actually more likable than Donnie and, even after he nearly kills Felix in the ring, he still seems to be incapable of understanding why everyone’s so upset.  While the other characters treat boxing as a sport and ignore the violence at the center of it, Dame understands that boxing is just a fight with a bigger audience.  After twelve years in prison, the system has dumped Dame on the streets and ordered him to make something of his life without bothering to help him develop any of the skills necessary to do so.  Dame fights because that’s what he’s had to do his entire life.  Since he went to jail for a fight that Donnie could have just as easily been arrest for, Dame is who Donnie easily could have become.  While his performance has since been overshadowed by his own legal issues, Jonathan Majors is never less than compelling as Dame, perfectly capturing both Dame’s bitterness and his own need for approval.

This film is Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut.  There are a few moments when Jordan falls victim to the first-time director’s trap of trying too hard to show off his artistic bona fides.  A sequence, during the final match, when the audience vanishes and Donnie and Dame dance around the ring and roar at each other like animals is occasionally effective and occasionally silly.  That said, Creed III is a hundred times more compelling and visually interesting than the more conventionally-directed Creed II.  Jordan gets good performances from his entire cast and shows himself to be a strong story teller.  I look forward to seeing what he does next as a director.

Finally, as everyone knows, Sylvester Stallone does not return as Rocky in this film, though the character is mentioned several times.  Stallone’s absence isn’t really felt.  That’s not a slight against Stallone, an actor who has gotten considerably more likable in his later years.  It’s just that there’s really not a place for Rocky Balboa in this film.  (Arguably, there really wasn’t much of a place for Rocky in the second film as well.)  Rocky Balboa has earned his retirement and hopefully, is still visiting his grandson in Canada.  This film belongs to Donnie and Dame.