LogFAQs > #939040165

Yeah II is a good enough movie as its own thing but it retread a lot of ground--especially in terms of Adrian and Paulie--and couldn't live up to the legend that is Rocky 1. Not to mention the retcon between the combatants not wanting a rematch to really wanting a rematch. In fairness, they did make it somewhat believable but it was still clear that the movie was just never supposed to happen.

They basically had no idea what to do with Adrian and Paulie after the first film so they just did the same thing again and again--until Rocky Balboa, where they actually did Paulie some justice and... well... finally did something different with Adrian (don't spoil!)

The two exceptions are that Adrian in Rocky III was on point, and Paulie in Rocky V finally has a tiny bit of character development after 1 (and I do mean tiny).

II is still better than IV and V. IV is still worth watching but not as an actual quality movie; more like for moments and scenes here and there. V is pretty bad and doesn't even matter for the series going forward. Well I guess it does actually, come to think.

After that, it actually recovers really well. Balboa was surprisingly good--I mean, the tone alone was freaking perfect--and the Creed films were great too. I actually really liked Creed II, which I understand a lot of people didn't (at least not as much as 1). Yeah it did the cheap nostalgia thing but it did it with variations here and there, and the end of the final fight was 100% perfect.

---

53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53 53