'Picard' could go either way; 'Creed III' wraps saga

'Star Trek: Picard'

Three episodes into the third and allegedly final season of "Star Trek: Picard," and too much of it has already been wasted on recreating the hide-and-seek fight inside of a nebula from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," which seems to be the all-too-obvious inspiration for other key aspects of our protagonist's intended character arc this time around.

In terms of pacing overall, this season has already introduced two new adult children of core cast members from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and is only two or three actors away from a full TNG cast reunion onscreen, but even the ones reintroduced are still scattered, chasing their own separate mysteries, which have yet to be tied together.

Although one of the forces acting against Starfleet appears to have been confirmed as one of the heavyweight enemies of the Federation, our scar-faced warship captain who's chasing Picard in the nebula codes very strongly as an entirely different threat, especially with her insect-like hench-creatures.

The partnerships we have been treated to so far have felt organic and fitting, and Seven of Nine in particular has continued her streak of being the biggest beneficiary of "Picard" aside from the man himself, although Raffi Musiker has become so integrated into Picard's world that I suspect I'll miss her presence whenever I next rewatch old episodes of TNG.

I have no idea how the other characters promised by the trailers leading up to this season will finally be delivered, which arguably attests to how well this season has maintained its dramatic tension, but with only 10 episodes in this third season, just as in the previous two, we're running out of time to both introduce characters and afford them enough space to shine.

I remain a loyal mark for "Star Trek," TNG and my beloved Space Dad Picard, but even more than I was this far into the previous two seasons, I'm getting tense about the potential to pull off a proper tribute to my generation's Enterprise crew, especially if this really is Sir Patrick Stewart's final farewell to the franchise (yes, fool me twice, after he reprised his role as Professor X for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but still).

'Creed III'

As impressed as I've been with both previous "Creed" films, "Creed III" still stands out, not only for perfectly capping off the "Rocky" and "Creed" saga of films to date, but also for serving as yet another showcase for the powerhouse talent of Jonathan Majors, who first caught my attention in 2019's "The Last Black Man in San Francisco."

In "Creed II," Adonis Creed, son of Apollo, faced off against Viktor Drago, son of Ivan, which allowed everyone to make peace and heal from Ivan having killed Apollo in the ring.

And through the relationship that Adonis developed with Rocky Balboa as his coach, over the course of 2015's "Creed" and 2018's "Creed II," Rocky found the resolve to reunite with his estranged adult son, and even bonded with his grandson.

This effectively cleared the table for Donnie to deal with his own past, rather than still settling Rocky and Apollo's old scores, so "Creed III" gives him a spiritual successor to Clubber Lang from "Rocky III," in the form of Majors as Damian "Diamond Dame" Anderson.

Sylvester Stallone does not return for this installment, having made the best exit possible in "Creed II," while Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson deliver authentic, sympathetic performances as a young married couple still adjusting to parenthood and relinquishing the spotlight in their respective careers - Donnie steps down as the champ, while his wife, Bianca, goes from performing her own music to producing it for others, to preserve her already compromised hearing - but make no mistake, "Creed III" is Majors' movie, all the way.

Back when Donnie and Dame were best friends and fellow delinquent youths, Dame defended Donnie during a street fight that Donnie started by pulling a gun, which led the older of the two young men to spend most of the next two decades behind bars, ending Dame's reign as a Golden Gloves champ.

Even before this backstory is fully revealed, it establishes a "Cape Fear" tension between Adonis and Damian, which Majors smartly undersells, in sharp contrast to Robert De Niro's aggressively displayed desire for vengeance as Max Cady.

With shuffling steps, slumped shoulders and a ducked, hoodie-covered head, Majors plays Damian as someone whose long-simmering grudge could almost be mistaken for humility, or perhaps even remorse, if not for how his modest, outwardly genial smiles never quite reach his flinty, squinting eyes, as they dart acquisitively over all the trappings of Adonis' success.

Majors' professional training as a clown is evident in the instinctive physicality of his performance, because like Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV," even when he's ostensibly a welcomed guest at genteel social functions, his character is always guarded and prowling.

As much as Damian feels uncomfortably out of place in Adonis' well-connected world of star-studded dinner parties, Dame resents that there's not a place already laid out for him there, and he blames Donnie for costing him what he sees as his rightfully earned alternate history.

How these resentments get resolved is what makes "Creed III" such a satisfying conclusion to the "Rocky/Creed" saga (even though we all know there'll be yet another sequel after this), because as much as Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed each distinguished themselves through their strength, stamina and spirit, both fighters also recognized that an opponent isn't the same thing as an enemy.

That's how Rocky became friends with his rival Apollo in the first place, and it's how Adonis went from boxing Viktor Drago in "Creed II" to amiably brokering his fights in "Creed III."

It's tempting to view Rocky as an American Beowulf, since he's a street-level fighter fueled more by sheer stubborn persistence than by any sort of learned skills, but not even Beowulf could persuade Grendel to help him fight Grendel's mother.

As is reinforced when Adonis teaches his brawling daughter to control her impulses by fighting more wisely, the insight Adonis Creed and Rocky Balboa ultimately share is that boxing should be a form of sport, not total warfare, and even fierce adversaries can become allies.

It's not just the punches he lands in the ring that establish our champ's victory, but the apologies and forgiveness he and his rival exchange after the final bell has rung.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
[email protected]