Creed III (2023)

Director: Michael B. Jordan

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Phylicia Rashad

Have I Seen it Before: No…

Did I Like It: The prospect of a Rocky movie without Sylvester Stallone is one I shouldn’t be in favor of, right? It’s like a Batman movie in the 90s without Michael Keaton, a James Bond movie without Sean Connery, or a Scream movie without Neve Campbell.

All right, I heard it.

It’s interesting that this film is released in the same month as Scream VI, as this film far more effectively move on from the massive shadow of its iconic central character and performance. That’s probably creditable to Creed II (2018), which I’ve spent the last few years in my mind as a serviceable but vastly inferior sequel to the first Creed (2015), but gave plenty of satisfying conclusion to Balboa’s story, to the point where we may not need to see him again*.

It also helps that both of those films helped establish Michael B. Jordan as an undeniable movie star, and Adonis Creed as a character we want to root for as much as for as his predecessors.

Jordan also acquits himself well as a director. The notion of directing a trilogy capper is daunting enough (with or without the full cast), but directing the ninth in a longer running series has to be an even taller order. What more can be done with this format? While the proceedings do run parallel with Rocky III (1982), Jordan adds an energy to the matches that make the punches feel different (he’s made no secret of Anime influences on the editing and staging, which is certainly something Stallone or John G. Avildsen would have tried). Does all of this make those fights less suspenseful than they had been in the past. I’m going to land on “no”, the fact that there is anything new here is something of a small miracle. Believing that things won’t work out for the main character is probably too much to hope for nine films later.

*A reaction I also had to Rocky Balboa (2006), but what the hell do I know?

Creed (2015)

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, and (against all odds, as it should be) Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa

Have I Seen it Before: Man, I was there opening weekend.

Did I Like It: What a stupid idea for a movie, and yet it was executed flawlessly.

As the end credits for Rocky Balboa (2006) begin, a feeling always came over me. This is it. This is the end. It was great while it lasted, Rock. Thanks for coming back one last time.

And here we are, again. And man am I glad.

Just to pitch the idea for a seventh Rocky movie takes a certain amount of bravery-to-the-point of insanity, to then turn around and make such a vital, necessary film is an act of subtle, but superlative genius. To wit, this moment that I may be paraphrasing:

ADONIS

Why do you want to be a singer?

BIANCA

It makes me feel alive.

ADONIS says nothing, smiles slightly.

That is amazing. New and fresh and interesting and incisive like a blade.

And yet, it is Rocky through and through. The film is so steeped in the mythology of the previous entries in the series. The whole movie wouldn’t exist without Rocky IV (1985). Rocky would be a completely different character without Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006). Ever wonder who won the top secret fight at the end of Rocky III (1982), well this movie has your answer. Coogler and company love making a great movie, but they love every Rocky just as much. These movies have a format, but when the inevitable third act training montage comes barreling down the tracks, even it is born again, without ever being ashamed of its roots. 

When the book on the greatest directors of all time is finished, Ryan Coogler will get his own chapter, and Black Panther (2018) is only a piece of that.

As sharp as Coogler’s choices are, he would be nowhere without his cast. Michael B. Jordan cements himself as a bona fide movie star while still channeling Carl Weathers just enough. Tessa Thompson is such a fabulous actress, with a naturalistic chameleon quality that I only just now realized she is the same actress from Thor: Ragnarok (2017). And then there is Stallone. Frankly, he deserved the Oscar for this round as Rocky. He so thoroughly abandons any sense of ego he might have once had—and his self-image in the 80s was undeniable—to play a Rocky laid low, but still resolute. That there is more Rocky to explore is staggering.

Just as an aside, a weird moment that I hadn’t fully digested in previous viewings: The moment where Adonis (Jordan) does an impression of Brando from The Godfather (1972). Which leads me to this strange question: In the Rockyverse do both Adrian Balboa and the actress Talia Shire exist? Maybe Creed II (2018) will finally shed some light on that. Maybe it’ll take several more movies before we get that answer. That suits me just fine. Keep ‘em coming, Rock.