criterionforum.org

could have been solved in 15 minutes if the 2 antagonists would just talk to each other, and that's actually what the movie ends up doing in the end. Wikipedia sums it up as "Afterward, Donnie reconciles with Dame, with both men admitting it was not the other's fault." and that's pretty much what could have happened straight from the start... but there wouldn't be any movie if it did, right ? So we're getting 2 hours of this rich famous guy FINALLY understanding "hum, maybe I should just talk to him". But only after beating the hell out of him as a "sport", because that's what tough men do, I guess ?

This is part of the point though, no? Creed's inability to effectively and appropriately access his emotions, particularly as they relate to his childhood, are the main source of tension with his wife and adopted mother, and Dame's sense of persecution similarly keeps him closed off. I agree that the final conversation seems anti-climactic and isn't as satisfying a resolution as I would have liked, but I don't think the movie is at all unaware of the dynamic you're describing.

And it's not so much about the final exchange seeming anti-climatic, I don't have anything against that, but how I felt "well, they could have just said that". And as a whole, especially after the past two movies that really didn't make it a likeable character to me but rather a brutish brat man who hits before he thinks, this didn't make me think like all this is some kind of "he finally found a way to be more mature and accept his past and the emotions that go with it, and now is able to make amends" but 2 stupidly brutish guys more spontaneously able to organise some championship fight to fight each other.

It really felt like a "duh !" moment in which none of the protagonists came out bigger, and with the focus being on Adonis but the writing making Dame a much more interesting character only to throw it away halfway because, well, the movie needs you not to root too much for him, it's also not helping.

Again, it's not because of what it wants to do - classic redemption acts where characters need to have some initiatic journey to mature - but rather how it does it - 2 guys finally realise they can also talk rather than pounding on each other. Maybe it's a willful riff on toxic masculinity and virile societal norms acting out through organised fighting sports like boxing, but I doubt it actually is.