Synopsis & Review of Creed III, Adonis Creed returns to the boxing arena to face Damien Anderson, a figure from his past
Choosing to retire and spend time with his family, Adonis Creed returns to the boxing arena to face Damien Anderson, a figure from his past.
In a psychic slump due to the death of his mother and Damien’s pride, Adonis is not even physically ready after 3 years of not boxing. But he had to take back the world title that was in Damien’s hands.
Creed III is a soap opera film about boxing directed by Michael B. Jordan and launched by Warner Bros Pictures on March 3, 2023. As Creed’s 3rd film and ninth in the Rocky franchise, this film presents a new narrative that has nothing to do with figures Rocky Balboa.
Will this film be as successful as the first 2 films? Even though Ryan Coogler and Sylvester Stallone are currently still sitting on the producer bench, will Michael B. Jordan be able to fulfill their hopes in continuing the breath for this franchise?
Los Angeles, 2002. Teenager Adonis “Donnie” Creed sneaks out of the house to accompany Damian Anderson to a boxing rookie. Donnie is smart in analyzing the enemy that Damian wants to meet, so that Damian can easily beat him.
After returning from the boxing arena, Donnie met Leon in front of the convenience store and punched him. Damian arrived pointing a gun at Leon’s comrades. The police arrive, Damian is arrested and Donnie flees from the location.
Now Donnie has declared himself retired after 3 years having made his last fight against Ricky Conlan, the boxer who once defeated him.
He already has his own boxing gym with his partner, Tony “Little Duke” Evers who is trying to defend their title of boxing champion, Felix Chavez.
Outside the gym, Donnie meets Damian who just got out of prison after 18 years of serving his sentence. Damian asks Donnie for help in realizing his dream of becoming a world boxing champion. Donnie didn’t promise that, but he did let Damian train at his gym as a sparring partner for Felix.
Meanwhile, Donnie’s life, which has a lot of wealth, is not prime. Her daughter, Amara, is a sweet deaf child but is often bullied by her friends at school and she often fights back. Mary Anne starts to get sick and previously had a stroke which worries Donnie and Bianca.
Bianca did not sing again and instead chose to produce for another vocalist due to her worsening hearing problems. Donnie introduces Damian to his family and is invited to Bianca’s stamp party where he punches Viktor Drago and breaks his arm.
As a result, the fight to protect the world heavyweight title used by Felix must be rearranged. And the option fell to Damian at Donnie’s suggestion. The fight is still held on an international scale even though this is Damian’s first fight as a professional boxer.
In battle, Damian performs multiple risky techniques that visualize cheating his strategy. Not waiting long, Damian drops Felix who makes him unconscious immediately.
After the fight, Donnie approaches Damian who is having a party and finds out about his old close friend’s hubris. Feeling his heart on fire, Donnie then fights Damian in a live TV show.
Donnie trains hard under Little Duke’s instructions and tries to restore his physical and moral state to its lowest state. In addition, Mary Anne died which made her sad. After going through intense training, Donnie is also ready to face Damian in the competition for the world heavyweight title.
Will Donnie be able to return to fame and pay for Felix’s defeat? Or even Damian able to maintain his title as world champion? Keep watching the excitement of this match until it’s finished to find the answer.
Just as Rocky Balboa said in the film Creed II that now is the time for Adonis to shine, then the film Creed III tries to get Rocky’s image out of the first 2 films.
This time, the documents arranged by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin only focused on Donnie’s story as a boxer with a champion mentality.
Donnie’s life background is slightly discussed at the beginning of the film regarding his friendship with Damian as his main enemy in this film that has a duration of 1 hour and 56 minutes. The narrative of that past becomes the foundation of quite complex disputes in the film that affect the majority of its personalities.
Even though he said he was out of Rocky’s shadow, in fact the narrative components of several Rocky films were originally taken back to the storyline of this film.
For example, the figure of Damian Anderson is likened to Rocky Balboa in the film Rocky who gets the opportunity to become a professional boxer by becoming a world champion enemy.
This was flicked by Damian to Donnie and Donnie to Felix the world champion. They compared themselves to the previous Apollo versus Rocky fight. But Damian’s personality is not the same as Rocky, he is more like James “Clubber” Lang in the movie Rocky III based on his background and determination.
Then, Donnie’s retirement from the boxing world was only to take back the winner’s title, more or less the same as what Rocky did in the movie Rocky II.
The repetition of the premise of the film Rocky IV can be seen when Damian defeats Felix with a chronic wound, almost the same as what Ivan Drago did to Apollo Creed in the film. However, Felix did not die.
Just as Rocky went on to fight Ivan to avenge Apollo’s defeat, Donnie fought Damian to avenge Felix’s defeat and take his championship title again.
And don’t forget the episode where Donnie trains Felix. Although through the instructions of the Little Duke, this has previously been done by Rocky in the movie Rocky V. In the end, all of the narrative components of the Rocky movie are included.
However, in the hands of Michael B. Jordan who acted as the special artist and director, he brought a new component that was never shown at first.
In terms of narrative, Creed III appears patient in presenting emotional foundations with a series of soap opera episodes full of discussion. And all the characters get their share of making emotional peaks in the main match.
Donnie’s life is exclusive and looks comfortable, it seems that he still has feelings of guilt that he kept for a long time and are open again with the arrival of Damian.
He considered the decision to show Damian as Felix’s enemy as a big mistake that he found out too late. However, he had to solve this problem by defeating Damian.
The bigger house with a music studio inside where Bianca can make some of her work, apparently saves the pain for Bianca who can’t perform again on the music scene as a vocalist.
Even though he always tried to smile, he said everything to Damian. Donnie and Bianca’s patience in raising Amara who is deaf and deaf is immense and deserves to be a role model.
Not only special characters get the opportunity to complete the dispute, but sympathetic characters like Mary Anne also get a draw.
It is said that Mary Anne kept all of Damian’s letters to Donnie intending to protect her foster child from Damian’s bad influence. But this actually hurt Donnie’s heart, even though in the end he was aware of that good intention.
In addition to the narrative aspect which is neatly arranged, Michael B. Jordan is able to direct several actors in this film well so that they can appear brilliantly carrying their respective characters.
Tessa Thompson is still maintaining her slick performance as a deaf woman who can speak with the contribution of hearing aids. The way he spoke thus gave added confidence in the use of the cipher language.
Phylicia Rashad appeared in a heart touching episode. The warmth of his attitude that was brought to Donnie’s family visualizes his figure as a wise parent.
And his loss was deeply felt for Donnie, as depicted in the episode his last time with Donnie was heartbreaking.
It is certain that Michael B. Jordan’s own acting lives up to expectations. The scratches on his face were so clearly visible, as if he had a lot to think about. His boxing technique does not diminish, which is complemented by the stunning depiction of fight episodes.
Apart from being tense, the slow-motion technique repeatedly succeeds in making us hold our breath and think about what will happen next.
For example, in the fight at the beginning of the film, Donnie repeatedly witnesses Conlan’s weak spot on his left rib. This slow movement makes us wait when Donnie will fly his punch at that point.
This technique is the first time it has been implemented in the Rocky franchise and is a new innovation as well as an improvement in the visual technique that Michael B. Jordan has done for this film.
Of course this is supported by the skills of Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors to bring their respective characters in the most awaited episode in this kind of film, namely the episode of the boxing match.
Especially for Jonathan Majors, once again he appeared efficient in bringing his personality. He successfully displays acting that gives confidence so that we already know what is already in his mind and heart in his heart through his gestures and gestures.
And every episode that brings it up, we always witness the fire of anger and determination in his eyes.
Creed III was quite successful out of the shadow of the Rocky franchise with an elaboration of a storyline that demands patience and episodes of imaginative boxing fights.
Apart from using slow-motion techniques, in one episode we are shown Donnie and Damian fighting as if they were in a fantasy world which is called their heart’s interpretation of that fight.
The acting performance of some of the actors is really good and efficient, so that this film doesn’t have any free episodes in it.
It was reported that the follow-up film was in the planning stages following a spin-off film being considered.
