Florian Munteanu | Through the Shattered Lens

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.

Yesterday, in anticipation of finally watching Creed III, I decided that I should first rewatch 2018’s Creed II. I actually did see Creed II when it was originally released in theaters and I seem to remember that I enjoyed it but, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t remember much more about it.

In Creed II, Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) finally becomes heavyweight champion of the world and immediately finds himself being taunted by Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). To be honest, Donnie really does have more to think about then some other boxer demanding that Donnie give him a fight. Donnie has finally married his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson), and she’s pregnant. However, Donnie cannot get Viktor out of his mind because Viktor is the son of the man who killed Donnie’s father in the ring. Ivan Drago has not only raised his son to be a fearsome fighter but he’s also Viktor’s trainer.

Have you ever wondered if Ivan Drago ever felt guilty about causing the death of Apollo Creed? This film suggests that he does not and that he instead blames Apollo’s friend, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), for not stopping the fight. In Creed II, Ivan and Viktor fly to Philadelphia to try to get their fight with Donnie. Ivan goes to Rocky’s restaurant by himself and he explains that, after losing to Rocky in Russia, he lost everything. Rocky went home a hero while Ivan went home with nothing. By turning his son into a fearsome boxer, Ivan is vicariously getting the career that he feels he deserved. Ivan wants Donnie to fight Viktor and Donnie wants to fight Viktor. However, Rocky wants nothing to do with it and, when you consider how big Viktor is compared to Donnie, it’s easy to understand why.

Donnie recruits Little Duke (Wood Harris, who co-starred with Jordan on The Wire) to serve as his new manager and trainer. The fight between Donnie and Viktor is a disaster, with Donnie letting his emotions get the better of him. Donnie is nearly killed in the ring but Viktor proves to be such an aggressive fighter that he loses by disqualification. Will Donnie survive the inevitable rematch with Viktor and will that rematch be fought in Moscow? Will Rocky finally agree to train Donnie and also find the courage to travel up to Canada to see his son and meet his grandson? Will Ivan realize that he’s pushing his son too hard? Even if you haven’t seen the film, you can probably guess the answers to all of those questions.

As opposed to the first film, there aren’t many surprises to be found in Creed II. It’s a well-made but thoroughly conventional boxing movie and it lacks both the grit and the attention to detail that Ryan Coogler brought to the first Creed. Running over two hours, Creed II has a few too many slow spots and even the big training montage drags a bit. That said, Creed II works wonderfully well as an epilogue to Rocky IV. The most ridiculed of the Rocky sequels actually provides a poignant backdrop to this film as both Donnie and Viktor struggle to both live up to and make peace with the complicated legacies of their fathers. Donnie finally feels worthy of his family name while Viktor shows the same type of raw courage that Rocky Balboa showed in his earlier films. Perhaps most surprisingly, Ivan Drago finally reveals his humanity. The scene where Ivan finally realizes that he’s turning his son into a machine who will not stop fighting until he is thoroughly broken is surprisingly powerful and Dolph Lundgren truly seems to be happy to have the chance to finally show that Ivan Drago is a human being after all.

Interestingly enough, Rocky Balboa spends much of the film sidelined and, even more so than in the first film, the emphasis is on Donnie’s emotional growth. It’s always good to see Stallone and he’s as likable as always as Rocky but, re-watching this film, it was easy to understand how a sequel could be made without the character’s presence. In the end, the best thing about the Creed films is that Donnie himself is a strong enough character that he can be compelling both with or without Rocky Balboa’s help.