"Creed III" enters the ring with many of the ingredients needed for it to be another memorable installment in the "Rocky" franchise.
In theaters this week, the follow-up to 2018's "Creed II" has the sequel series' engaging star, Michael B. Jordan, ripped six ways from Sunday as usual for this latest boxing drama.
It boasts the requisite visceral boxing sequences, with bloodied fighters trading atomic punches, landing thunderous body blows and suffering earth-shaking knockdowns.
Best of all, it sees a terrific actor, Jonathan Majors, lacing up the gloves for the first time as the film's heavyweight villain.
But its lackluster writing keeps it from being a knockout.
Jordan makes his directorial debut with "Creed III" and shows some promise in that arena, but the screenplay by Keegan Coogler and Zach Baylin weighs him down.
Coogler is the brother of Ryan Coogler, the talented director of 2015's "Creed" (and of the "Black Panther" films). He, Keegan and Baylin are credited with the underwhelming story.
It revolves around Jordan's now-retired heavyweight-champion boxer, Adonis "Donnie" Creed, pouring his energies into being a husband to Bianca (Tessa Thompson of "Westworld") and a father to their young daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), and into promoting boxing matches instead of fighting in them. The next big fight is the heavyweight-title bout between his old rival Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) and champion Felix Chavez (newcomer José Benavidez).
However, this new chapter of Adonis' life is interrupted when he encounters someone from his past, Majors' Damian "Diamond Dame" Anderson.
Jordan establishes the bond between the characters in the film's opening by introducing a 15-year-old Donnie (Thaddeus J. Mixson) looking up to his 18-year-old friend and fellow boxer, Damian (Spence Moore II). A night that begins with great promise results in Damian spending nearly two decades in prison.
Now free and looking to make up for lost time, he visits Donnie, who hasn't exactly kept in touch. Donnie invites him into his home and offers to help in any way he can. However, what Damian wants — a shot at the heavyweight title — Donnie says he can't give him.
Damian, though, isn't exactly the accepts-no-for-an-answer kind of guy, and he takes matters into his own ferocious hands. And, of course, his actions put these old friends on a collision course that ends in the ring.
"Creed III" is actually at its best outside the ring, as Adonis and Damian reconnect and spend some time together. Thanks in part to Jordan's direction, these scenes capture the familiarity these two have with each other but also all the distance that's grown between them. The film too often lacks nuance, but it can be found here.
Majors — also in theaters as Kang the Conqueror in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" — is captivating, saying as much with his face and his body movements as he does with his line reads. And even as Damien devolves into a cartoonishly ruthless antagonist — a development that's disappointing if not unexpected — he remains somewhat interesting because Majors is a force of nature on the screen.
Jordan's Adonis feels a little bland by comparison. In front of the camera, Jordan ("Black Panther," Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station") turns in a by-the-numbers performance as his character struggles to find his way forward.
Again, the writing doesn't do him any favors. The Cooglers and Baylin introduce several little plot elements that don't really go anywhere. One particular head-scratcher comes after Amara, being picked on by another girl at her school for the deaf, clocks her bully in the face.
Adonis becomes adamant, much to Bianca's understandable frustration, that he must teach his daughter to defend herself. Um, that doesn't really seem to be the issue, but ... maybe he could teach the other girl how to dodge a flying fist?
Not that his presence alone would have saved "Creed III," but that Sylvester Stallone is nowhere to be found as Adonis' mentor, Rocky Balboa, is a bummer. As the aging former fighter, Stallone brought a lot to the first two "Creed" installments. (The actor has been at odds with franchise producer Irwin Winkler over the direction of and rights to the series, and while Stallone is listed as a producer, it sounds as if he personally had nothing to do with the making of "Creed III.")
Even without Rocky, this all feels incredibly familiar at this point — the personal conflict, the training montage, the climactic, win-at-all-costs final fight.
"Creed III" is, as Jordan notes in his director's statement, a film largely about forgiveness. Ultimately, though, he unearths too little genuine drama in mining that age-old theme.
Many punches are thrown, but there's just not that much punch.
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'CREED III'
2 stars (out of 4)
Rated: PG-13 (for intense sports action, violence and some strong language)
Running time: 1:57
How to watch: In theaters Friday
