Film Review: Adonis Creed Isn’t Quite Done Yet

Creed III is a continuation of the Rocky franchise and stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed. The script is written by Zach Baylin and Keenan Coogler with Ryan Coogler getting some credit for the story. Jordan also serves as director. Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Wood Harris are included in the cast. Jonathan Majors plays the old childhood friend who has a score to settle with retired boxer, Adonis Creed.

Creed is retired from the ring and runs a boxing academy and is living the life as wealthy husband and father. Mila Davis-Kent joins the cast as the young daughter of Adonis and Bianca. She’s appropriately cute and charming and does well. Bianca has some difficulty with her hearing, and it seems that the daughter has inherited the problem as well. In spite of the parenting challenges, Adonis seems to have done well for himself and is trying to leave a troubled childhood in the past. Except the past shows back up in the form of “Diamond Dame” Anderson, a childhood friend of Adonis’. I guess they were actually foster brothers. Anderson has just been released from prison and wants to resume a boxing career that was curtailed by his legal troubles. Adonis seems willing to help out an old friend, however Anderson isn’t exactly truthful about the reasons to his reaching out. The reunion goes a bit awry, which leads to Creed and Anderson settling their past in the ring.

First of all, Jordan remains quite compelling in this role, as expected. I am not too familiar with Jonathan Majors, but he turned out to be an excellent casting choice as the embittered Damian Anderson. It was great to see Wood Harris and Phylicia Rashad as well. Tessa Thompson remains as gorgeous and talented as ever. There were some interesting flashbacks to Creed’s childhood as well. The absence of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa ended up not being too noticeable due to the strong performances of the main cast. The script was not free of some irritating plot holes, which