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.
Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) reunites with an old childhood friend named Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), who just got out of prison. Adonis helps Damian re-enter the boxing world, but Damian wants more than Adonis is willing to offer. Tension quickly grows between the two until they decide to fight it out.
I must disclose that I am not a big sports person. I have seen the first “Creed,” but I haven’t seen “Creed II” or some of the later “Rocky” movies. This is the first movie in the “Rocky” franchise that Sylvester Stallone does not appear in, and I did not miss him. In this story, there is no reason for Rocky to be there. And I think it is great that the “Creed” films can now stand alone.
I was quite impressed with Michael B. Jordan’s direction here. This is the first time he is sitting in the director’s chair, and it seems like he learned a lot from Ryan Coogler, which should come as no surprise. The fights are well-shot, and the performances and pacing are solid.
2023 is a busy year for the Jonathan Majors. After appearing in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” as the new MCU big bad guy, he also manages to steal the show here as Damian Anderson. His performance really started to compel me once he shed the nice guy persona and started antagonizing Creed. Majors plays a man who is bitter and mad at the world, and he has every right to be.
Majors is not the only one who shines; Michael B. Jordan adds another layer to Creed here. Adonis feels guilty since he never contacted his friend and knows he could have easily been sent to prison. Besides his family struggles, Bianca (Tessa Thompson) is frustrated with his lack of openness, and his deaf daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) has become prone to throwing punches herself.
Despite the great performances, this film’s story beats are familiar and predictable. There is too much convenience in getting to where the plot needs to go. Damian fights the heavyweight champion, Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez), within the first 30 minutes of the film, without having previously faced anyone else in an official match.
The final fight also has stylistic choices that took me out of the film. It became apparent that Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors were fighting on a green screen. And there were too many parallel shots of Adonis and Damian (we get it, they’re foils). However, I liked how the fight scenes followed the boxer’s eye line so you could see what areas they were aiming at to get their opponent down.
Despite the predictable storyline and unusual stylistic choices, the character dynamics at play here are the film’s strong suit. Michael B. Jordan impresses both as a director and the main character, while Majors continues to be a star on the rise. I don’t know if there will be any more “Creed” sequels, but I wouldn’t mind if there were.
Available on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, & DVD May 23rd
