While every entry in the greatest action movie stars ever, well before he took out countless enemies as the Vietnam vet John Rambo or assembled an elite team of mercenaries in The Expendables, he gained worldwide recognition as the underdog hero Rocky Balboa. With six movies in the main Rocky franchise, even Balboa’s biggest fans will it some films were better than others.
The Best Picture at the Academy Awards and launching Stallone’s entire career. Over the years, Rocky returned time and again to face off against foes like Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago in sequels that have also become important touchstones of modern popular culture. While many thought Rocky was out for the count after Rocky Balboa in 2006, it was exciting to see this franchise come back swinging in the form of the Creed series.
Sylvester Stallone's Favorite 2 Rocky Movies Show How Patchy The Sequels Were
Stallone’s Choices Highlight He’s Aware Of Rocky’s Shortcomings
Everyone will have a different answer for what their favorite Rocky movie is, yet Stallone’s choices offer fascinating insight into the best and worst aspects of this long-running series. According to Far Out magazine, Stallone ranked the original 1976 movie and 2006’s Rocky Balboa as his two favorite outings for the boxer known as the Italian Stallion. The star revealed that although “the first one is my favorite,” he added that “emotionally the last one, Rocky Balboa,” stood out as one he’s “incredibly proud” of.
Stallone said that nobody believed in Rocky Balboa, and it was a long shot to even get the movie made. As a legacy sequel that featured an older Rocky coming out of retirement to fight one last time, Rocky Balboa brought its star back to his underdog roots and felt like a fitting epilogue to the fighter's character arc that brought things full circle in a way that was both emotional and impactful. Everything that worked about these first and last films in the mainline Rocky series only highlights how inconsistent some of the sequels in the middle were.
All 11 Rocky & Creed Training Montages, Ranked
The training montage is an integral part of the Rocky and Creed series as they build anticipation, burst with inspiration, and represent motivation.
While it was incredibly exciting to see Rocky’s rematch against Apollo Creed in Rocky II and the fight against Ivan Drago in Rocky IV was truly iconic, entries like Rocky III and particularly Rocky V left a lot to be desired. Although Rocky III featured the definitive “Eye of the Tiger” montage sequence, this was where the franchise started to lose its way, and emotional depth was traded for spectacle and one-dimensional villains. Rocky V represented an absolute low point, ending with an underwhelming street fight that felt like a slap in the face to the franchise’s legacy.
Creed's Sequels Have Been Way More Consistent Compared To Rocky's
Adonis Creed’s Character Arc Has A Sense Of Depth And Maturity To It
While some might argue the Rocky movies had higher highs than the Creed series, it’s not hard to see that these spin-off movies were far more consistent. With Michael B. Jordan taking up the role as Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son, Adonis, Creed struck the perfect balance between paying tribute to the past while also looking toward the future and carving out its own cinematic legacy. Although it felt strange to see the franchise move away from having Balboa as the series protagonist, with Stallone returning in a mentorship role, the Creed films felt like a natural ing of the torch.
Adonis’s journey also addressed issues of class, privilege, and race in a way the Rocky movies never did.
With three critically acclaimed Creed movies already released, there’s a thematic consistency to Apollo’s narrative arc that has tapped into important themes of identity, legacy, fatherhood, and personal growth. As an underdog hero who grew up without the of his famous father and even ended up in a juvenile detention facility, Adonis’s journey also addressed issues of class, privilege, and race in a way the Rocky movies never did. Through Ryan Coogler’s excellent direction in the first movies and with star Jordan making his directorial debut with Creed III, every installment has been of incredibly high quality.
There’s a narrative throughline to Creed that relates to Adonis stepping outside of his father’s shadow and discovering who he truly is for himself. While familiar faces like Ivan Drago returning with his son Viktor help pay homage to the original films, Creed never felt like it was simply rehashing the Rocky brand, and every reference or callback contributed to the story it was trying to tell. Most of all, Creed managed to stay grounded in realism in a way Rocky didn’t, and as the franchise has grown and evolved with each subsequent sequel, it never felt formulaic.
What The Creed Sequels Have That Rocky's Sequels Missed
The Creed Series Has Learned From The Mistakes Of The Past
Every Creed movie felt like the natural continuation of Adonis’s story, whereas the Rocky movies were all over the place in of their main characters' wants and motivations. While Creed was reckoning with deep questions around legacy and identity, Rocky Balboa shifted from an insecure boxer in Rocky III to an invincible superman in Rocky IV before returning as a poor, broken, and potentially brain-damaged has-been in Rocky V. In the Creed series, the emotional stakes felt consistent, while in Rocky, they were essentially reset with each installment.
Another thing that puts the Creed series on another level is the thoughtful way it depicts its antagonists as three-dimensional, wounded people with their own challenges to overcome. This can most effectively be seen in the way that Creed movies addressed the struggles of Ivan and his son Viktor Drago, each of whom carries their own trauma as a result of the events of Rocky IV. With Dolph Lundgren giving an emotional performance as he reprised his role as Ivan, there was a level of depth to his character that was absent from the villainous Russian caricature he was first presented as.
There are plans for an Drago spin-off movie featuring Dolph Lundgren.
The Rocky movies were clearly a product of their time, and it’s impossible not to notice the ways that the sequels got bogged down in an overtly 1980s aesthetic that can feel dated and almost cheesy today. The Creed movies stand as mature, character-driven dramas that are rooted in boxing, which allows the franchise to evolve without losing the innate sense of heart that means the audience connects to it. There’s an authenticity to Creed movies that the Rocky movies strived for at the time but never quite managed to capture as consistently.
Source: Far Out
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