Creed III

I agree with my good friend, Dr. K, “A Damn Good B Movie”! Set aside your doubts and enjoy!

Directed and starring Michael B. Jordan, the beauty of this film flows from the important fact that it is more than a boxing movie. Sure it ends with a 12-round boxing match between Jordan and Jonathan Majors (more on both to follow), but you will be captivated by searing depictions of various personal relationships.

The film begins in 2002 where you see Donnie Creed and his childhood friend Damian Anderson end up in a street encounter where Donnie flees, and Damian ends up in prison for 18 years.

You then watch Donnie, now Adonis, become a heavy weight boxing champion in South Africa. Jumping to the present day, Adonis is now living in luxury in the Hollywood Hills with his beautiful wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), his young deaf daughter.

While Adonis has retired and is running a boxing gym, all hell breaks loose when Damien returns from prison. Majors follows up his memorable role as Kang in the recent Ant-Man film as a fixated ex-con who wants Adonis to help him fight for the heavy weight boxing crown.

In the process, you watch Adonis wrestle with his guilt over failing to contact his old friend during his lengthy incarceration. He further works with his lovely, dedicated wife to raise a deaf daughter who wants to be a boxer. Ms. Davis-Kent is unforgettable as the child Amara, and the frequent sign language will capture your heart in the same fashion as Coda, last year’s Oscar winner.

While the last third of the film centers on Adonis returning to the ring to dethrone Damien who is now the boxing campion, I was more intrigued by his relationship with his dying mother (Phylicia Rashad) and a passionate wife for several reasons. Mom has hidden Damien’s attempt to contact Adonis from prison while Bianca does her best to not dwell on her lost signing career due to a throat ailment.

This movie follows Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Woman King and Till as creative films with a cast dominated by black actors. I can only hope that the Academy overcomes its racial prejudice with Oscar nominations for 2023.