by Robert Bouffard, Editor
A couple of years ago, I saw all six Rocky movies on sale at Best Buy for Black Friday. I’d only seen the first two (and the Creed movies), but I got the set anyway because I figured I’d do the binge at some point. So now here I am, with Creed III coming out soon, I decided it was finally time to check out the full franchise!
Some spoilers ahead!
Rocky
I’d seen Rocky a couple times before this viewing, and I’ve always thought of it as a very good movie that I respect a lot. Something clicked this time, and now I think it’s basically perfect. Apart from Rocky pressuring Adrian and not taking no for an answer, I love every moment of this. It’s patient and takes its time, building itself up with lots of small character moments. Those are all done so well that they make the montage scenes that much more exhilarating, and the final fight that much more captivating. I genuinely think Stallone is great here; his tough, chummy, underdog attitude is enough to endear him quickly. The film overall is special because in the end, it’s not about the boxing; it’s about the characters.
Score: 9/10
Rocky II
The sequel to such an incredible movie — what is essentially a drama that has some boxing — does a commendable job in its attempt to live up the the predecessor. It’s unequivocally more goofy than the original, but it wears its heart on its sleeve so earnestly that I’m willing to forgive a lot of goofiness. For example, Rocky’s poem to Adrian is so much higher of a high than the low of not really knowing what to expect in the final fight. There’s a lot of trash talk from Apollo, and a lot of shrugging from Rocky, so you don’t really know who’s better positioned once the fight finally comes around. And some of the melodrama like the kids running after Rocky in the second consecutive training montage (Stallone is really attempting to build an otherworldly mythology around Rocky here, and his direction is solid), or both fighters going down at the same time goes a bit too far, but it still focuses enough on the human drama to be able to get past all that.
Score: 8/10
Rocky III
So, uh, it’s incredible how quickly this franchise becomes a parody of itself. Whereas the first two movies are roughly 80/20 in terms of their character moments to boxing ratio, this one is basically flipped. There’s a training montage that ends with a cut to Rocky holding his baby, right before cutting to another training montage. Only these training montage have an excess of shots of Rocky and Apollo’s thighs. It’s very weird. And it’s a shame, too, because the boxing match at the end is as gripping as the first two movies, but we’re there before we know it, with barely any understanding of the stakes. At least this one gave us “Eye of the Tiger.”
Score: 5/10
Rocky IV
Thankfully, Rocky IV is almost a return to form for the franchise. But while it’s not as rough as a watch as Rocky III, it still doesn’t reach the heights of the first two. There are still so many montages, but they’re a bit more motivated. They’re cooler, too — Rocky climbing a mountain had me ready to do the same (though a greatest hits montage is a bit too corny for sure). But that he’s training to fight Drago is a bit underwhelming. The movie repeatedly emphasizes that he’s all but a killing machine, and he can’t have said more than 10 words the whole movie. A pure evil boxing villain just isn’t that compelling. Where it really loses me is in the propaganda of it all: The Cold War apparently ends with an “everybody clapped” moment thanks to a Rocky speech? It’s fine I guess, but a far cry from Rocky just wanting to hug Adrian after he lost a fight.
Score: 6/10
Rocky V
It probably took me too long to realize it, but I now see that the Rocky sequels post-Rocky II are just fluctuating levels of passable mediocrity. Between Rocky retiring for what seems like the fifth time, contrived family drama, another meathead villain, and Adrian’s pleas being outright ignored for 100 minutes, there’s not too much of value here. It is sweet at some points, and I do appreciate that there was at least an attempt to bring Rocky back to its character-first roots, but this doesn’t amount to much more than macho chest puffing, whether it’s Rocky himself, his son, Tommy Gunn, or Duke. Rocky V is fine, and it has its moments, but I really hate that the ending does a 180 from the previous movie where Rocky doesn’t want to teach Rocky Jr. to fight. Treating violence outside the ring as something positive doesn’t seem to line up with Rocky or anything we know about his character, and to me, it’s borderline character assassination.
Score: 4/10
Rocky Balboa
What I appreciated in the attempt in the previous movie, I appreciated in execution this time around. Rocky Balboa really does bring the franchise back to the roots of the first two films in that it’s a human drama that ends in a boxing match. It’s a legacy sequel done right (and I should take this moment to note Bill Conti’s great music through these six movies). Maybe the best one until Top Gun: Maverick. While I’d prefer Adrian to have not died offscreen, I like how her presence is felt throughout the whole movie. It also takes a lot of suspension of disbelief that people are worked up enough over an ESPN segment for the whole fight to happen in the first place. But what it does for Rocky’s character puts a good cap on the movies with his name in the title. Lastly, it’s fun to watch these all in a row — they’re each a nice time capsule of the filmmaking tropes of the decade which they were made.
Score: 8/10
Creed
I saw Creed before I’d ever seen a Rocky movie. I thought it was pretty good! On my first ever rewatch of it, I’m amazed that I ever saw it without knowing the franchise’s backstory. It (unsurprisingly) adds so much to the aura of the movie, and there’s a more substantial buy-in thematically and emotionally. Michael B. Jordan is a solid lead, especially in the boxing sequences. He’s a worthy successor to Stallone; Ryan Coogler also pitches in the best directed movie of the entire franchise. And to cap off the trifecta, Ludwig Göransson’s score, while not as instantly iconic as Conti’s, is still excellent. I do miss some of the smaller character moments that Stallone proved so adept at with his writing, and the character of Rocky as the lead is what kept me coming back, even in the doldrums of some of the worse Rocky movies, so I miss him as the lead at times as well. But in the end, with the relationship between Adonis and Tessa Thompson’s Bianca, Creed has enough heart to it to nearly stand up to some of the better Rocky movies.
Score: 8/10
Creed II
Just like earlier entries in the series, Creed II is about fathers and their children. And to that end, I wish I had a better understanding of why Rocky doesn’t see his son more, since there never seems to have been a falling out or something along those lines. And like in Rocky IV, the Dragos are too straight up evil for me to have a full investment in. I like the minimal antagonist development, along with lots of protagonist development that the first couple of Rocky movies do, and that Creed does. Also, I know it’s a franchise hallmark, but Creed II officially has too many moments where Adonis goes down and gets back up. It gets to a point where you don’t know when to invest anymore. But at the end of the day, this is still well made, even if you miss Coogler’s direction. Having Stallone be such a big part of the movie certainly helps, but the addition of the baby into Adonis and Bianca’s life adds some natural investment into their story. Though I will say, Bianca is a better character than Adonis. She carries him at times.
Score: 7/10
Franchise Ranking:
- Rocky
- Rocky II
- Creed
- Rocky Balboa
- Creed II
- Rocky IV
- Rocky III
- Rocky V
I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of quality coming into this series as a whole. I knew there would be at least a couple good entries, but I hadn’t heard great things about some of those middle entries. I was pleased to find, though, that even when the franchise is at its lowest, I still found things to enjoy, and I was always looking forward to watching the next movie. It’s fun to check in on Rocky every few years, and I’m disappointed that he’s not going to be in Creed III. He’s of course the heart of the first six movies, but he maintains that status as the series moves on to a new main character as well. And as someone who hadn’t seen Stallone in much prior to this watch, I never gave much of a thought to him being a good filmmaker, but it was cool to see how these movies evolved throughout the years to fit the filmmaking styles that were popular at the time. So all in all, I definitely enjoyed my experience catching up on an iconic franchise!
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