Adonis has been thriving in both his career and family life, but when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces, the face-off is more than just a fight.

The third film in the ‘Creed’ series (or spin-offs if you will) continues the story of Adonis Creed, son of Apollo, who has taken on the mantle of series star with Sylvester Stallone not making an appearance for the first time in a ‘Rocky/Creed’ movie. In this entry, Michael B. Jordan also directs for the first time as well as stars as Creed, and the premise pits him against an old childhood friend who has ambitions to get back into boxing after a lengthy spell in prison. Beyond the first entry, the ‘Rocky’ movies were fairly patchy, but the ‘Creed’ movies have been pretty consistent so far and for my money they’re 3 for 3 after ‘Creed III’.

The movie begins with Creed retaining his title then almost immediately retiring to spend more time with his family – specifically his daughter Amara who was born deaf. He’s still involved in boxing and runs a Boxing academy with Duke (Wood Harris), where he’s helped to train up a new protégé to become world champion (Felix Chavez, played by real life boxer José Benavidez Jr.). When leaving the gym one day he bumps into his old friend Damian (Jonathan Majors), fresh out of prison and looking to pick up where he left off 18 years ago, despite being much older and a much different person, with flashbacks showing us the events that led to Damian going to prison – of course involving a young Adonis.

The dynamic between Adonis and Damian is the core part of ‘Creed III’ and it’s the primary reason I thought this was a really solid third movie in the series, both because it allows the movie to explore more interesting themes than solely boxing and because it pits two fine actors up against one another (I suspect it won’t be long before Majors is nominated for an Oscar albeit not for this). Damian was a Golden Gloves champion when the boys were younger and this has fueled a sense of injustice at the life Adonis has gone on to lead, becoming a champion and having the seemingly idyllic life with a beautiful wife and daughter, successful business and massive house. I liked how it dug into the way people change and how you have one person (Adonis) who is a completely different person now, and one (Damian) who hasn’t really changed because of their specific circumstances. It isn’t possibly to just pick that friendship up from where it was and only Donnie seems to get that, although his guilt puts him in a position where he feels he must try, and that creates more problems when he ends up placing Damian in the ring with Felix.

‘Creed III’ hits many of the beats you expect it to hit in both the boxing ring and in the personal elements of the story, but it’s done in such a punchy manner that you buy into the story, the personal grievances and find yourself invested in these characters. It’s well directed by Jordan in his directorial debut, particularly in the boxing sequences which to be frank, are hard to get wrong with the technology available these days, and it builds to a natural conclusion while of course leaving the door open for the inevitable 4^th film. I’m a fan of this series and I was a fan of ‘Creed III’, and while it may not hit the heights that the best of the ‘Rocky’ movies did, it certainly has it beat on consistency and I’m looking forward to continuing to follow these characters in the next movie.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Michael B. Jordan

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Florian Munteanu, José Benavidez Jr. and Selenis Leyva

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11145118/