Creed III - It's not Creed I or Creed II.
Creed 3 is the follow up to the 2018 film Creed 2, and stars Michael B. Jordon and Jonathan Majors and was directed by Michael B. Jordon. The film starts off in L.A. in 2002 with a young Creed and his buddy Damian. Damian is fighting in an underground boxing match and has big aspirations in the boxing world including golden gloves, the Olympics and then the heavyweight championship.
Damian wins his fight easily. In celebration, they stop at liquor store after the fight and Creed runs into a guy that used to beat them regularly at the detention center and starts beating the crap out of him. The man’s friends run out and pull Creed off him and start beating Creed. Damian intercedes by pulling a gun on the men, just then the cops pull up…Creed runs away and Damian is put away in prison for eighteen years.
Fast forward to 2017 and Creed is fighting Pretty Ricky Conlan, the guy that beat him in the first movie. Creed wins, and unifies the belts and retires as champion. Fast forward a few more years and Creed in now a successful promoter and is running the Delphi Boxing Academy with his coach Tony “little Duke” Evers who is the trainer from the first two Creed movies who is the son of the trainer guy from all the other Rocky movies.
Damian is released from prison and meets up with Creed…Damian still has aspirations of
becoming champ, but now he is old and has to figure things out fast…he begs Creed to give him a title shot, and Creed tells him things don’t work like that. So then, Damian has some guy that he was in prison with break the arm of Viktor Drago who was supposed to be fighting for the championship which Creed was promoting…they need a last minute replacement…in steps Damian (which is ridiculous, but it’s a Creed movie so just go with it)
Surprise, Surprise Damian wins the fight…but he is a junk yard dog and dirty as hell…and ends up hurting the other fighter – also someone Creed promotes. Duke is ticked off at Creed because he told him earlier in the film that Damian shouldn’t be in the gym because he was dirty…Creed vouched for him, but Duke said, “he is telling you who he is, listen to him.”
Creed then finds a bunch of old letters from Damian that his mom stored away trying to keep Creed from any more trouble…as he looks at the old letters a picture of Damian and presumably a friend from prison (which apparently you can take pictures of each other in prison now) who was the same guy that broke Drago’s arm. Creed puts two and two together and realizes that Damian orchestrated the whole thing.
He confronts Damian…Damian admits that he manipulated him the whole time, and says how hard it was being in prison watching Creed live his life, and said that he is going to take everything from him. They argue a bit and Damian punches him in the face…after this Creed’s mom dies…Creed then talks with his wife and is like, “Damian’s not going to stop.” And his wife is like, “you better make him stop.” And he is like, “there is only one way he’ll get the point.” And she is like, “do what you gotta do.”
So then, Creed goes on Sportscenter to announce he is coming out of retirement to challenge Damian. Damian calls into the live show and starts bad mouthing him. Then both of the men are like, “let’s do this” – insert training montages. Honestly, this is always the best part of the Rocky – Creed movies for me…growing up in the 80’s I still can’t get enough of a good montage.
This one is ok as far as montages go, but I just couldn’t get into it, in part, because they set up the fight so poorly. I know they had past beef, but what was Creed’s motivation for fighting him? To try and reconcile with the demons of his past? Presumably, that was his motivation…but Creed wasn’t the one wronged. Damian bailed him out and then got busted for it and Creed never contacted Damian while he was in prison…So, why was he motivated to beat him up?
Fast forward to the fight, and as expected, they go back and forth until the final round and Creed wins. After the fight, Creed goes into Damian’s locker room and is like, “it’s not your fault” and Damian is like, “it’s not your fault either.” And then Creed is like, “if you need anything let me know.” The end.
Man Test
Does this movie pass the man test? Yes, it’s a boxing movie, with training montages and a few good one liners.
Christian Worldview
What about Christian worldview? Is there anything Christians can glean from
this movie? This is a tough one, in the sense that many of themes from the previous two films are played out here as well, however, they seem to lack the same degree of force, like
perseverance, overcoming adversity, coming to terms with your past and so on….like any good boxing movie, the real fight is always outside of the ring.
The one thing that I think we can grab a hold of, is coming to terms with our past and learning how to forgive and how to be forgiven, however, I think the movie does a terrible job of drawing this out and developing any real complexity with the characters. They seemingly try, with Damian’s bitterness and anger fueling his motivation. The contrast is evident in the fight at the end of the movie with Creed wearing all white and Damian in all black.
The impression is that Creed has been able to forgive himself and move on, while Damian, fueled by rage, has not. However, they both lack the worldview that enables for true forgiveness and true reconciliation, which is clearly seen at the end of the movie with neither man actually taking any responsibility for their actions. The theme of forgiveness and reconciliation are certainly Biblical, in fact, they are at the very front and center of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God is absolutely holy and we have rebelled against Him and violated His law. We are naturally enemies of God, slaves to sin and imprisoned by Guilt. Through the righteous life and sin-atoning death of Jesus our guilt is removed and our debt is paid. We have been forgiven much, therefore we can forgive much.
We can truly be reconciled to one another because we have first been reconciled to God. When our chains our removed so too the chaff of bitterness that those chains bring. For those with a past, fighting bitterness can be a lifetime battle, but it’s a battle that’s already been won through Christ who has given us the victory.
Rating
I really wanted to like this movie. In fact, I watched Rocky Balboa and Creed 1 and 2 before watching it, so I went into this film eagerly. At first, I was ticked off that Rocky wasn’t in it and was tempted to boycott the film because I love Rocky. But after having watched Creed 2 again, it made since, given how they ended the film with Creed in ring and Rocky sitting outside letting Creed have his time. If Creed was really going to develop as a stand-alone character, Rocky’s needed to fade into the shadows – because his character will always be bigger, therefore, his absence makes sense.
However, I felt like this movie just lacked something. I thought Michael B. Jordon did a good directing it and the actors were good, especially Jonathan Majors, but this movie just underdelivered for me at every point. I felt like it just lacked the grit and heart of the other movies…Ironically, a major theme in the other two films was Creed discovering within himself why he was fighting – which determined his growth as a character and was the hook that captivated me while watching. This film had none of that. Because of this, I give the movie a C.
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