Beef-God Jonathan Majors Elevates Otherwise Disposable, Enjoyable ‘Creed III’

In the world of boxing movies, the overlap between predictable and enjoyable is pretty much the whole piece of the pie. The protagonist is going to take some punches, get their licks in, face unsurmountable odds, blood a lot, and then ultimately triumph. Pepper in some sweaty training montages and sizzling pump-up jams and you have the makings of a perfectly serviceable sports drama. However, the best movies within the subgenre build in stakes that don’t depend entirely on the hero winning the big match (see Rocky, Creed). Despite being entertaining to varying degrees, their sequels often fail to do the same.

This is the case with Creed III, an entirely serviceable but disposable sequel that’s entertaining in its own right but plays entirely by a rulebook that audiences already know backwards and forwards. What makes this entry worth the price of admission is the addition of Hollywood hot ticket item Jonathan Majors who just oozes pure uncut star power here. Majors is Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson, a one-time rising star in the amateur boxing world. After a run-in with the law lands Damien behind bars for the better part of two decades, his shot at the top seems to have passed him by. Only Damian doesn’t agree. He shows up at the gym of his childhood friend and former world heavyweight champion Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) for help getting back in the ring and an unlikely shot at a championship title. The script from Keenan Cooler and Zach Baylin is best when focusing on Damian and Adonis’ relationship early on, exploring their fractured brotherhood, the ties that bind them, and all the past emotional baggage that that dredges up with Adonis. When their relationship eventually turns openly antagonistic as a means of plot locomotion – and I don’t consider this a spoiler since the poster itself is an Adonis vs. Damien showdown – it doesn’t work quite as well. The heel turn feels too sudden, the shift from simpatico connection to adversarial rivalry is just too rushed and isn’t given the necessary build-up to make it really work. Majors sells everything he’s asked to nonetheless but their inevitable falling out could have popped more with a tighter script that places more focus on the wedges – past and present – driving them apart. So too does the script suffer when it’s dealing with other issues of escalation, such as a hasty subplot involving Adonis’ daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) getting bullied at the school for deaf children she attends or a bizarrely anticlimactic buildup to a reveal about Damian’s criminal history that never comes.

As much as it is a predictable boxing drama at its core, Creed III is a story centered in interpersonal drama and Jordan, in his directorial debut, proves that he’s more than capable of handling the weight of human-level relationships, as well as ringside fisticuffs. For a first-time filmmaker, Jordan succeeds most in capturing the texture of crunchy male-male relationships fraught with a checkered history. His film’s sense of fraternity and bruised ego makes it an interesting study of masculinity and man’s failure to confront his demons and failings. Some of this translates over to the main event fight scenes and informs the sense of fury and duty that simmer in the souls of this rivalry. There’s only so many ways that one can film a boxing match and if Creed III is to be believed, they’ve all already been done. There’s tension to the boxing matches baked into the Donny vs. Dame drama but missing is Ryan Coogler’s ability to tether the physical and emotional elements together to reach new heights. That is to say, the boxing bouts work well enough here but they aren’t the main event and instances that try something new don’t necessarily work to keep us even more engaged.

Tessa Thompson returns as Bianca, Adonis’ hearing-challenged music producer wife, but she isn’t given much to do other than provide emotional support to Adonis. Jordan on the other hand remains a rock solid lead but this quickly becomes Majors’ show and Jordan is left in his shadows in his own movie. Majors simply is a sensation here, a sinewy strapped wagyu beefcake whose performance is layered with loss and anger and a depth of sadness that make what could have been a run-of-the-mill adversary into the real star of the show. You’ll come to see the next Creed chapter but leave thinking only of Majors.

CONCLUSION: Come for the boxing drama, stay for Jonathan Major’s beefy turn as a rival boxer in this second Creed sequel that checks all the boxes without necessarily doing anything all that new or interesting. Totally serviceable but destined to be soon forgotten, Major’s eye-catching performance aside.