The Creed series has been an entertaining extension of the Rocky films, a stylish and occasionally moving addition to the venerable boxing franchise. Creed III is no exception. But it does feel like a series that is sometimes at war with itself, straining against and within the limits of franchise branding.
This sense is encapsulated most succinctly in the first film when Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) is given a stark choice: He can fight under the last name of his biological father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), who died before he was born and whom he never knew, and gain a shot at the title against soon-to-be-imprisoned Brit Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew). Or he can stick with the name Johnson and try to work his way up through the boxing ranks on his own merit.
As you might guess from...