Rocky 2: A Disappointing Rematch

The first Rocky movie is one of the most beloved films ever made. You can still watch that movie today and have a fantastic time. My first time viewing it last week was a pleasure from start to end.

But the higher the peak, the greater the fall. There are nine of these movies, counting the Creed trilogy. I don’t expect them all to be good. But surely the series isn’t going to fall off after the second movie, right? The second film is usually the best!

If nothing else, Rocky isn’t fighting Mr. T or a Russian yet, so it can’t be that bad… right?

Ring the bell, referee! It’s time for Rocky 2!

This movie picks up right from where the last one left off: with an ambulance rushing Rocky to the hospital for emergency surgery.

Yeah, that checks out. After that fight in the first movie, I’m amazed they didn’t have to fly him off in an emergency helicopter.

There’s a small moment in this opening I really enjoy between Rocky and Apollo. In the last movie, Apollo barely even spoke to Rocky; he spent the whole movie showing off and making plans. But after the match, he’s only got eyes on the Italian Stallion. A bit later, Rocky asks him if he fought with all he had, and the champ admits that he did. Creed might hate Rocky, but there’s a certain respect between them after that match.

But our champ isn’t in any mood for a rematch. In fact, he’s set on retiring. All he wants to do now is lay back and spend time with Adrian. So he asks her to marry him, and she says yes! Our boy is living his best life!

And then they just get married. Like, in the very next scene. Not gonna lie, I thought that was gonna be like, the B plot or something.

However, this is not a happy, picturesque ending. All the success is going to Rocky’s head, and he’s starting to spend irresponsibly. A car he doesn’t need, expensive watches, a house. Adrian has her worries, but Rocky is as content as can be.

Unlike Creed. His ‘happy ending’ is crashing down all around him. He’s drifting away from his wife and kids, buried by dozens and dozens of hate letters calling him a fake, a fraud, and encouraging harm upon him.

I guess things weren’t so different before the internet. They just required more work. But his wife told him to ignore it and he didn’t, so I’d say this is partly Creed’s fault. Just call them kindling for the fireplace and move on.

Also, Rocky and Adrian are now expecting. Suck it, Creed!

Okay, I gotta say: the first half hour of this movie is pretty boring. It’s just scene after scene of Rocky and Adrian flirting and being happy. Sure, it’s satisfying to see Rocky rise up from the pit we saw him at in the first movie, but that very pit is what made the story so interesting to begin with. Without it, it’s just a movie about a happy guy living a happy life with his happy wife. I kept checking the runtime here, wondering when the actual movie would start.

Oh, but Rocky isn’t very good at acting for commercials. So now he’s gotta go back looking for a job. He wants a cozy office job, but… well, he’s Rocky. That’s not in the cards. So now he can go back to boxing, a career he doesn’t like, or keep trying to find something else.

So he gets a job at the butcher shop. It’s about as exciting a scene as it sounds. Then he gets fired anyway, so… what was the point of that? Was the meat work montage so important?

You can see where this movie is going from a mile away. Rocky’s irresponsible spending catches up with him, he needs to get back into boxing, and Creed wants payback by any means necessary. It’s the first movie, but more repetitive and boring.

Now, to be fair, there is a good story in here. A boxer trying to leave the ring, only to find he doesn’t belong anywhere else. Does he embrace his career as a fighter and learn to love it? Does he do what he has to do to support his family? Or does he keep going until he finds success out of the ring? This could have been a really interesting movie!

But it’s just so boring! There’s no emotional weight to anything that happens! I never felt for Rocky the same way I felt watching the first movie. Instead of building on that new emotional story, it focuses more on resetting the field, finding a reason to got Rocky and Creed to fight again because the writers thought that was all audiences wanted to see.

There is one scene that I really like later on. Adrian falls into a coma after giving birth. When Rocky visits her, he almost immediately breaks down. He’s ready to give it all up, the match, his career, everything, just to be with her when she wakes up. It’s a gut-wrenching scene, and Sylvester Stallone performs it brilliantly.

And just like everything else in this movie, it goes on waaaaaay too long. Hope you enjoy twenty minutes of Rocky being sad and praying. Then it all wraps up happily and I’m made to wonder once again: what was the point of any of this?

That just leaves the actual fight. The rematch the whole movie hobbled towards since the start. Is it any good?

The fight in the first film was basically just a montage. Which was fine. That movie was more about Rocky’s rise to glory than the fight itself. Even still, it managed to be an absolutely brutal and engaging. Even though you only saw five minutes of actual brawling, it felt like fifty, and you can feel all the exhaustion, disbelief, and determination in both fighters.

The fight in Rocky 2 is more or less the same. It’s not as visceral, but it does put the personality of the two fighters on full display. Creed is a cocky asshole determined to win by any means necessary, trying to get under Rocky’s skin. They even implement slow-motion to emphasize the impact of certain blows. And the music certainly amps up the intensity. If nothing else, it’s a cool looking fight!

But it lacks the emotional weight of the first film. You don’t get that satisfying “Fuck yeah!” moment. That moment of pure exhaustion where you just can’t believe they’re still going. It’s spectacle and nothing more. Which is perfectly fine; I watch shounen anime, I love a good mindless slugfest. But the first film had substance as well as spectacle. I just wish we still had both.

To end on a positive note: the acting is still phenomenal all around. None of the actors were phoning it in for this movie. All the issues I’ve had so far are on the script, not the performers.

Sad to say, I really didn’t like Rocky 2. It’s a boring, repetitive slog that fails to understand what made the first movie so compelling and enjoyable in the first place. You could cut a solid fifty minutes out of the film and the story would only be better for it.

Fuck me, we’re two movies in and the quality has already plummeted. And from what I’ve heard, this isn’t even the worst Rocky movie. Not by a long shot. Rocky better start praying for me, because I don’t know if I’ll survive this one.

Two down. Only seven to go.