Technically this is a slight bit of a RTTP as I have seen IV (more than once, because it was the only thing on when I was on vacation more than once), but everything else was brand new to me. Did a marathon with friends this past week, so I guess my thoughts are below:
Rocky I: Not what I was expecting, but I liked it. This one honestly isn't so much of a sports movie, and the romance and just Rocky's general life seems to be more central. Oh, and the boxing here is kinda crummy in terms of choreography (which is perfectly understandable for a number of reasons, and like I mentioned it doesn't matter quite as much). With the most notable thing that actually carries throughout most of the films: goddamn nobody blocks. Like, I don't know much boxing, but you really shouldn't just be taking every freaking shot to the face. Also, I actually didn't know that he lost coming into the film, which I honestly kind of like.
Rocky II: A bit of a shift in that yeah, it's more about the sport and ends with Rocky victorious, but still feels a lot like a followup to the first film, as it should. I definitely enjoyed this one.
Rocky III: This is the one that really didn't do it for me, and felt easily the least essential. It just wasn't that good, to be honest. It represents a pretty obvious shift into Rocky just being some big superstar and the best boxer in the world, and really doesn't feel much like the first two films. I liked the pure stupidity of the "Wrestling vs Boxing" match, though, even if it makes no goddamn sense if you try to think about it. Also, it's here that Adrian kind of stops being a character of her own and morphs into "wife of Rocky". Like, she feels like a totally different character than who she was, and a far less interesting one at that. Oh, and the movie seems to have forgotten that the second film ended on Rocky's eye being messed up to the point that it was seriously questioned if he should even do THAT fight.
Rocky IV: This honestly may be the reason I like Rocky III the least, because IV feels like it does what III wanted to better. The big character death, more silly nature overall, all that stuff. It's still very different than the first 2, and it's honestly pretty ridiculous in a lot of ways, but I like it. The biggest knock against it I have is... it's kind of a short movie, and they clearly realized that and fluffed it up to make the run-time look more respectable. It's like an hour and a half, but they clearly jammed stuff in to get to that total, most noticeably all the full musical sequences. Most notably when Rocky goes driving and it's pretty much the equivalent of an AMV of the Rocky series up until that point. Still, that's a damn fine training montage in this one, and I really do like the film.
Rocky V: I feel like I had heard this one is disliked, but I actually rather enjoyed it. After III and IV, the overall feeling of the movie jumps back to something more akin to the first two, with them thrust back into more modest living, and the damage Rocky's taken being an important plot point. The big point of contention is probably Tommy Gunn, who straight up sucks, and... I honestly love that the movie made that kind of the point. Like it starts off with him being all chummy, and I didn't really like him then, so I love that it spiraled to the point where you're cheering for Rocky kicking the crap out of him in the end. Also nice little bit how it plays against that desire to keep dragging Rocky into the ring, and it kind of really fits how things end with a street brawl instead of boxing match in defiance of that.
Rocky Balboa: I liked this one okay, but it may be the one I have the least to say about, outside of I guess II. Nice means of bringing Rocky back to being an underdog, and I actually like the way it kind of ends in an homage to the first movie with a lost split decision. Not my favorite, and it didn't blow me away, but it was nice. Also, I actually thought until I looked it up that the actress for Adrian must have died for her to be written out, but apparently not. And Paulie sure must've lived a sad life to have stayed in that same meat packing plant job all this time. At least he had that brief moment with the robot in IV. Also, Rocky's brain damage from V got magically better, I guess.
Creed: So this was an interesting movie, but ultimately I felt it didn't quite click. Like, maybe there were just too many plot threads running through it that none of them ended up feeling especially developed. Perhaps the biggest issue for me, though, was that Apollo's presence was reduced to just a name call, and due to the setup it wasn't really anything else. It really would've been nice to see them try to build some kind of great connection between Adonis and his father in some way, though I guess starting off with him being born after Apollo's death didn't really leave as much room. I don't know, just felt like more could've/should've been done there. Or maybe actually give Apollo's wife a role with more meat in it or something. Also, I'm not going to touch on the music style being different because it is what it is, but it really didn't nail the training montage, which is a shame. Like, it had a couple separated bits of training montages instead or something, and that just didn't work as well. And what happened to the extended cast from Rocky Balboa for that matter? On the plus side, though, this actually felt like proper boxing, with people blocking and everything, so that's cool! Though redoing the callback to Rocky I via the lost split decision is kind of distracting when they did it in Rocky Balboa as well. I guess if you watched them when they came out it'd be fine, but it kind of irked me when watching them in a row. But yeah, not a bad movie, just felt it really didn't live up to what it could've been, which is a shame.
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So I guess my tldr is that I enjoyed them all to some degree at least outside of finding III a bit crummy, and Creed a tad disappointing. Also, Paulie is a weird character, just kind of quietly shifting from massive douche to loveable goofball throughout the films.
Rocky I: Not what I was expecting, but I liked it. This one honestly isn't so much of a sports movie, and the romance and just Rocky's general life seems to be more central. Oh, and the boxing here is kinda crummy in terms of choreography (which is perfectly understandable for a number of reasons, and like I mentioned it doesn't matter quite as much). With the most notable thing that actually carries throughout most of the films: goddamn nobody blocks. Like, I don't know much boxing, but you really shouldn't just be taking every freaking shot to the face. Also, I actually didn't know that he lost coming into the film, which I honestly kind of like.
Rocky II: A bit of a shift in that yeah, it's more about the sport and ends with Rocky victorious, but still feels a lot like a followup to the first film, as it should. I definitely enjoyed this one.
Rocky III: This is the one that really didn't do it for me, and felt easily the least essential. It just wasn't that good, to be honest. It represents a pretty obvious shift into Rocky just being some big superstar and the best boxer in the world, and really doesn't feel much like the first two films. I liked the pure stupidity of the "Wrestling vs Boxing" match, though, even if it makes no goddamn sense if you try to think about it. Also, it's here that Adrian kind of stops being a character of her own and morphs into "wife of Rocky". Like, she feels like a totally different character than who she was, and a far less interesting one at that. Oh, and the movie seems to have forgotten that the second film ended on Rocky's eye being messed up to the point that it was seriously questioned if he should even do THAT fight.
Rocky IV: This honestly may be the reason I like Rocky III the least, because IV feels like it does what III wanted to better. The big character death, more silly nature overall, all that stuff. It's still very different than the first 2, and it's honestly pretty ridiculous in a lot of ways, but I like it. The biggest knock against it I have is... it's kind of a short movie, and they clearly realized that and fluffed it up to make the run-time look more respectable. It's like an hour and a half, but they clearly jammed stuff in to get to that total, most noticeably all the full musical sequences. Most notably when Rocky goes driving and it's pretty much the equivalent of an AMV of the Rocky series up until that point. Still, that's a damn fine training montage in this one, and I really do like the film.
Rocky V: I feel like I had heard this one is disliked, but I actually rather enjoyed it. After III and IV, the overall feeling of the movie jumps back to something more akin to the first two, with them thrust back into more modest living, and the damage Rocky's taken being an important plot point. The big point of contention is probably Tommy Gunn, who straight up sucks, and... I honestly love that the movie made that kind of the point. Like it starts off with him being all chummy, and I didn't really like him then, so I love that it spiraled to the point where you're cheering for Rocky kicking the crap out of him in the end. Also nice little bit how it plays against that desire to keep dragging Rocky into the ring, and it kind of really fits how things end with a street brawl instead of boxing match in defiance of that.
Rocky Balboa: I liked this one okay, but it may be the one I have the least to say about, outside of I guess II. Nice means of bringing Rocky back to being an underdog, and I actually like the way it kind of ends in an homage to the first movie with a lost split decision. Not my favorite, and it didn't blow me away, but it was nice. Also, I actually thought until I looked it up that the actress for Adrian must have died for her to be written out, but apparently not. And Paulie sure must've lived a sad life to have stayed in that same meat packing plant job all this time. At least he had that brief moment with the robot in IV. Also, Rocky's brain damage from V got magically better, I guess.
Creed: So this was an interesting movie, but ultimately I felt it didn't quite click. Like, maybe there were just too many plot threads running through it that none of them ended up feeling especially developed. Perhaps the biggest issue for me, though, was that Apollo's presence was reduced to just a name call, and due to the setup it wasn't really anything else. It really would've been nice to see them try to build some kind of great connection between Adonis and his father in some way, though I guess starting off with him being born after Apollo's death didn't really leave as much room. I don't know, just felt like more could've/should've been done there. Or maybe actually give Apollo's wife a role with more meat in it or something. Also, I'm not going to touch on the music style being different because it is what it is, but it really didn't nail the training montage, which is a shame. Like, it had a couple separated bits of training montages instead or something, and that just didn't work as well. And what happened to the extended cast from Rocky Balboa for that matter? On the plus side, though, this actually felt like proper boxing, with people blocking and everything, so that's cool! Though redoing the callback to Rocky I via the lost split decision is kind of distracting when they did it in Rocky Balboa as well. I guess if you watched them when they came out it'd be fine, but it kind of irked me when watching them in a row. But yeah, not a bad movie, just felt it really didn't live up to what it could've been, which is a shame.
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So I guess my tldr is that I enjoyed them all to some degree at least outside of finding III a bit crummy, and Creed a tad disappointing. Also, Paulie is a weird character, just kind of quietly shifting from massive douche to loveable goofball throughout the films.
Hey woman! Hey woman!