“I feel like a Kentucky Fried idiot.”

Rocky II starts off right after the first movie, with both of our fighters, Rocky Balboa himself, and Apollo Creed, trying to move on from the fight and put it behind them. However, Rocky can’t seem to get his life together, while on the other hand, Apollo Creed is getting destroyed by the media and boxing fans for getting the tar beaten out of him by Rocky. This eventually leads to Apollo demanding a rematch, where Rocky is unsure if he truly wants one, as he has since retired from boxing, mainly for Adrian, but also is still struggling financially, and thus, eventually agrees to have a rematch.

I’m definitely a big fan of the premise of this movie. I’m glad Sylvester Stallone decided to take the sequel in the direction of a rematch, instead of a whole new opponent, because while the ending of the original Rocky was absolutely perfect for the story, it left it to where they could definitely have a rematch, for, you know, obvious reasons (it’s going to be really hard to not spoil the first movie). Was the whole “Ain’t gonna be no rematch” line from the first one resolved a little too quickly? Yes, but I don’t think anyone who worked on that film, including Stallone, knew how successful it was going to be.

Rocky and Adrian’s chemistry is just as great as it was before, especially in the first half of the movie. We get to see a little more of Adrian herself, with her definitely being more open and comfortable with Rocky now that they’ve started a relationship. I like what they do with their relationship from the beginning as well, and I also think that what they do with Adrian’s character in the latter half of the film was a good motivation for Rocky to get back in the ring.

The latter half of the film in general is definitely the best part. Rocky gets more character development, and it’s one of the more emotional parts of the whole franchise. After seeing all that he’s been through, even though he’s already agreed to a rematch, him finally locking in is incredibly satisfying, especially with the reason he gets to do so and get back into training. That scene right before the training montage, especially with the line at the end of it, gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

Speaking of the training montage, it’s great, just like the first one. The reason for his training is one of the better ones in the series, and it’s motivational as ever. It definitely goes over the top in the “running stretch” part of it, but I love it anyways. The final fight is amazing too, and while I prefer the original for the more story and character aspect to that fight, I love this one too, and it’s definitely better choreographed and shot. It feels a lot more immersive, as I would probably even say it’s more intense than the first. It all, again, leads to a great and very emotionally satisfying ending.

However, there are definitely a couple of decent problems that keep this movie from being great to me. I’ll talk about my big gripe last, as the one I’m about to bring up is more relevant to what I just talked about. While the second half, including the third act, of Rocky II is awesome, I never quite feel that the third act is set up as well as it could be, or at least not as well as the first movie. The first and second half of the film are very different from each other, which isn’t necessarily a problem because they work together well anyway, but with that, the setup for the fight is really only about an hour or so long, instead of it really being the whole movie like it was in the first one. This leads to a final fight, that, while still great on its own, and like i said, even better directed than before, isn’t as satisfying.

My biggest gripe with Rocky II though is what they do with the Rocky character in the first half. He’s kind of written to be a complete idiot, making stupid decisions left and right. I get that he wasn’t the brightest in the first movie, but I think Stallone went a little too far in this one. I like the concept of Rocky being susceptible to materialism, however, the way it plays out is a little over the top and almost cartoonish. He feels a bit like a different character than he did before, not in a serious way, but in a way that is enough to feel a little overboard. He gets it back together though by the second half.

Rocky II is a really good sequel, however, and I can’t wait to see how the other sequels and the Creed movies hold up as I continue this rewatch of this series.