Rocky: The Undisputed Collection

Retro

TAKE 1: One Man’s Opinion

…because film is largely subjective

 

by Frederick William Springer III

 

Rocky: The Undisputed Collection

Release Date:  3 November 2009                                                                    Runtime:  -        

Review Date:  4 February 2013                                                                       Series Rating:  3.3 (of 6)

     Last week, I watched the Rocky movies for the first time, christening my new home theater.  Originally, I had no intention of doing a write up but have decided to do so, more for me to look back upon than anything else, if I want a refresher course for talking points.

    I should begin by saying I’m not into boxing.  I don’t get the concept of a civil society condoning beating the shit out of somebody and calling it “sport”.  That being said, I think it’s poignant then to point out that the films made a non-boxing fan root for Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) to win the matches he was partaking in, so the stories had substance enough to make them compelling.

     However, the series had it low points, particularly in IV and Rocky Balboa.  First, right off the bat in IV—a robot?  Really?  Then the whole story with Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) didn’t ring true.  In just the previous installment, he had been riding Rocky that Rocky needed intense training to beat opponent Clobber Lang (Mr.T).  But here, Apollo decides on a whim that he’s going to come out of a 5-year retirement with no training to take on Drago (Dolph Lundgren), someone who makes Lang look wimpy in comparison.  When Rocky originally took on Lang he wasn’t coming out of retirement, he had been continuously fighting (though, less challenging contenders) up to that point.  Furthermore, IV was montage after montage.  The only good point, which is really irrelevant to the movie itself, was seeing that Brigitte Nielsen was actually attractive in her day.  Only knowing her from The Surreal Life and Flavor Flav’s flavor of the month, I only knew her as aged and withered.

     I found Rocky Balboa a sad final attempt to milk the franchise.  For one, it just dragged.  Some of the others were slowly paced as well, but in those cases the heart was present.  Here, we find that the heart—Adrian!--has been dead for many years and, so, isn’t included in this film.  I get that it was supposed to be a factor that propels the plot, but it just putters and stalls out.  It would have been to better effect if the first act, or at least a part of it, involved building up to the loss and the effects afterward.

     Also, Rocky starts to persistently pursue, non-romantically, the character Marie who had a brief appearance in the first film.  And the audience is just left wondering, why?  There doesn’t seem to be any real reason.

    The series, as a whole, is also plagued with really irritating plot holes.  In the second film, we’re told Rocky has a serious problem with his eye making it very dangerous for him to box, that he shouldn’t be at all.  A big deal is made about avoiding being hit on the left side of his face and that this rematch with Apollo would be his last fight.  Yet, in III, we learn he’s continued fighting between the two films with no mention ever again about this eye problem.

Likewise, in the beginning of III, he was going to announce his retirement and decided to take one last fight with Lang and then the subsequent rematch to which he was retiring afterwards.  But then, again, in IV, we learn he still has never retired, just kept going.  He does finally retire in the beginning of V due to brain damage and not being able to pass a medical exam but then in Rocky Balboa he is suddenly physically fit to fight again?  (I have read that a credible explanation was originally intended to be part of the film but was cut—it shouldn’t have been.)

     My personal favorites were III followed by V, the latter which I found to be more realistic, especially compared to the installments directly before and after. 

     Conferring with someone else familiar with the series once I finished, we found each other at odds.  His favorites were the two I liked least, and he hated V.  Though, I guess he’s in good company as Sylvester Stallone himself said his least favorite was V as well.

     I must give Stallone a lot of credit, though.  Not only did he star as Rocky but he also wrote all of them and directed all but the first.

My ratings are as follows:

Rocky (3)

Rocky II (4)

Rocky III (5)

Rocky IV (2)

Rocky V (4)

Rocky Balboa (2)

Taking the average leaves us with a 3.33 for the series.