'Creed 3' by Michael B. Jordan packs a wallop and I want a rematch immediately

I want a rematch.

“Creed III” is a predictable boxing movie that employs many of the genre tropes. It telegraphs its punches, you might say.

Who cares? It's a blast.

Michael B. Jordan, making his directorial debut, and Jonathan Majors are so intense, so compelling — just so good — that you can’t take your eyes off the screen when they’re together. 

Which, happily, is often, including a final slugfest that is both brutal and impressionistic — not necessarily the smoothest combination, but as long as they’re together, slugging it out with their fists, their words or the shards of their shared memories, it works.

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Michael B. Jordan directs and stars in 'Creed 3'

The film begins with a young Adonis Creed (Thaddeus J. Mixson) and his best friend, Damian Anderson (Spence Moore II), sneaking out for a Golden Gloves fight. Only it’s Dame who is the gifted boxer; Donnie, as his friends call Creed, carries his bag and gloves.

At a liquor store afterward, Donnie sees someone from their past and starts hitting him. A couple of guys jump him and Dame pulls a gun.

Cut to Donnie 15 years later, now played by Jordan, in the last fight of his career, unifying the heavyweight title. He retires, and hangs around his ridiculously gorgeous home with his wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and their daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez), the current heavyweight champ, fights out of the gym Donnie runs with Duke (Wood Harris).

All is right with the world. Until it isn’t.

One day, Donnie walks out of the gym to see a man he doesn’t recognize leaning on his Rolls Royce. After a moment, he realizes who it is: Dame (now played by Majors), out of prison after 18 years, where he's been for pulling the gun at the liquor store all those years ago.

Dame wants to fight. Not only that, he wants a shot at the title. Donnie is flooded with guilt and wants to help his old friend, but can realistically only do so much. Dame is even older than he is, after all, and he hasn’t fought in years.

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Perhaps you know where this is leading.

One improbable step after another leads to a showdown in the ring between Dame and Donnie, each feeling betrayed by the other. It has to. Anything less would be narrative malpractice. It’s the getting there that is interesting. As with any boxing movie, there are plenty of montage sequences of the fighters engaged in nearly superhuman workouts, looking ever so serious as they suffer.

Donnie must work through tragedy as well as the feelings of guilt and the past Bianca can’t convince him to talk about. Dame, meanwhile, remains fueled by rage; it seems to be an inexhaustible resource for him.

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Jordan is again good as Creed; Majors is the picture of seething menace

Jordan makes some interesting filmmaking choices during the match, eschewing a round-by-round linear approach for something a little more esoteric. Playing off the fighters’ perceptions of the past and how they see each other now, it’s more interesting than effective. But at least it’s that.

The best boxing movies are people movies, character studies of strivers overcoming obstacles, sometimes of their own making, sometimes not. “Raging Bull,” the best of them all, is certainly an example. So is the original “Rocky,” which was the inspiration for the “Creed” franchise. (Adonis Creed is Apollo Creed’s son; Sylvester Stallone, who wrote and starred as Rocky and is a producer of the Creed films, reprised the role in the first two of them.)

“Creed III” is definitely a people movie. And Jordan has trained his lens on the right subjects. He’s once again convincing as a man trying to fight his way through internal conflict, not just opponents in the ring. And Majors is the picture of seething menace; he actually made me nervous at times. He is a much more convincing villain here than he is as the villain Kang the Conquerer in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

Indeed, the focus is squarely on Donnie and Dame. What few subplots there are go largely untended once the fight machine grinds into motion. In terms of what makes a good movie great, this is a shortcoming. In terms of what’s entertaining to watch, it’s not a problem.

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'Creed III' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Michael B. Jordan.

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson.

Rating: PG-13 for intense sports action, violence and some strong language.

How to watch: In theaters March 3.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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