By Kiyanna Noel
Sold-out arenas, regret and living a life that potentially belonged to someone else. “Creed III” follows the story of Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan after he has retired from his boxing career, settled down and is living the comfy life. Jordan also directed “Creed III” as opposed to “Creed I” directed by Ryan Coogler and “Creed II” which was directed by Stephen Caple Jr.
That is until a person from his past shows up and everything inevitably goes downhill.
Damian Anderson, played by Jonathan Majors, is an ex-convict who was destined for the big leagues until he pulled out a gun to save a young Adonis Creed from being jumped by three men. This resulted in an 18-year sentence, immediately ending his adolescent boxing career. Or so we thought.
After Anderson serves his time, he shows up outside of Creed’s boxing gym to reconnect and ultimately prove he is the best boxer of all time.
While Creed wasn’t caught up in the case with the gun charge, he proceeded to pursue boxing and became the Heavyweight Champion. Meanwhile, Anderson feels as though he is watching someone else live his dream behind bars.
As his guilty conscience is eating away at him, Creed allows Anderson to train at his gym, not knowing that Anderson has other plans. Anderson did whatever he felt needed to be done to have the opportunity to face fighter Felix Chavez, played by Jose Benavidez. Anderson sabotaged the fight by instructing his prison friends to start a fight and break Chavez’s opponent Viktor Drago’s hand.
Creed then allows Anderson to get in the ring with Chavez, only to discover his grimy and dirty tricks after Chavez is beaten to the point of hospitalization.
The movie follows the resentment of Anderson toward Creed and ultimately ensuing a professional boxing match between old friends separated by life and its consequences.
Although “Creed III” didn’t include Sylvester Stallone, it still has been the talk of the town. From its cinematography to the inclusion of American Sign Language, it’s safe to say “Creed III” has the potential to be one of the biggest movies of the year.
By expanding the diversity of actors, Jordan truly showed his directorial skills in this film. During the boxing scene when Creed and Anderson were in separate corners of the ring, Creed saw younger Anderson and Anderson saw younger Creed. This scene allowed the characters to acknowledge they aren’t children anymore.
The movie had celebrities like Phylicia Rashad, who played Creed’s foster mother, and Wood Harris, who played Tony “Little Duke” Burton.
Toward the end of the film, Creed begins to understand the ulterior motives and challenges Anderson to a major fight.
This fight symbolizes how Creed was no longer running away from trouble like when he was a child, but it also symbolizes how Anderson believes Creed is to blame for his dreams being taken away from him.
Creed got so caught up in his life that he never thought about what happened to Anderson when he went through the prison system.
During a break before the last boxing match, Burton turns to Creed and tells him: “Let go of what was and welcome what is.”
This single quote gave Creed enough motivation to realize where he went wrong in the situation, but to recognize how times have changed and notice how he isn’t responsible for Anderson’s mistakes that got him arrested in the first place.
The plot of “Creed III” is precise, consistent and easy to follow even if you haven’t seen the previous movies in the series. Not only has it addressed fame, money and manipulation, it also stresses the importance of accountability, trust and communication among people who grow apart. If you are looking for an action-packed movie with family values and multiple hidden themes and agendas, “Creed III” may be just what you are looking for.
