Rocky III (1982)

Genres

Drama | Sport

Director

Sylvester Stallone

Country

USA

Cast

Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Tony Burton, Mr. T, Ian Fried, Hulk Hogan

Storyline

After three years of defending his world championship, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is considering retirement. But then Clubber Lang (Mr. T) challenges him, and lost the title, he teams up with former enemy Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) to win the title back.

Opinion

I knew it eventually was going to happen. I'm talking about a drop in quality in the franchise, and that's exactly the role of "Rocky III". It's still an entertaining film, but it isn't much more of a sport film.

Just like for the previous instalment, the story didn't need to be continued, but that's what Stallone did. Unfortunately, it's still the same story told slightly differently for the third time, and, although it is still interesting to follow despite knowing the outcome, it transforms the character study of the previous entries in nothing more than a story about boxing.

Boxing, boxing, and boxing. That's all this film is about. Although it sees the "development" and growth of the relationship between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed - the whole idea of Apollo helping Rocky just doesn't seem right to me, though -, the film is pretty shallow.

The character development kind of took a backseat in this one. There isn't much of a development for Rocky, nor for Apollo who plays a more important role as Rocky's trainer. Adrien is barely a character, other than a scene in where she confronts Rocky about his fears, she doesn't have a point to be in the film. Paulie somehow manages to be even more annoying. The villain, Clubber Lang, on the other hand, is the definition of unlikable, and the performance from Mr. T is truly entertaining.

The perks of "Rocky III" being just a film about boxing is the boxing itself. That's where the film gives its best, with great, well-paced action and a fight whose outcome is predictable but by no means less exciting. And at last but not least, the film features a fantastic song, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger", and a good score overall.

2 comments :

  1. decisamente un classico!
    Comunque sono passata anche per dirti che ho finalmente ripreso a scrivere sul blog!

    ReplyDelete