Much like the previous two entries, Rocky Balboa has a lot going for it, but is held back in many key areas.

The entire process that fuels Rocky to fight again is great. It is incredibly heartbreaking to see Rocky so down in his life, coping with the loss of his wife and his estranged relationship with his son. He is broken and needs an outlet for his pent-up anger and to gain a connection with his past life. This part worked excellently, but the online simulated fight gimmick that sparked the bout was ridiculous. The main villain was very underbaked and generic, causing the final fight to have very limited stakes.

The final fight was pretty average as well. I felt as if they tried to replicate an actual boxing match in terms of presentation instead of delivering a true cinematic experience. This led to it being pretty difficult to watch with the bland presentation and terrible editing.

I think the addition of Marie was pointless. It was nice to give Rocky a character from his past to fill the void left by Adrian, but the script was written in such a way that it felt more like a pseudo-love story. This was really awkward because Rocky’s true love was Adrian, and his connection to Marie was filmed in a romantic light, which took me out of the film entirely. Not to mention the fact that it was a child that he used to look out for in the first film, which felt kind of predatory. In my opinion, Marie's screen time should have been replaced by his son, giving them more time together to develop and mend their relationship. It would have worked much better.

Overall, I think this film has one of the stronger plots since Rocky II, but I can’t help but feel it was wasted. The pacing was extremely slow, and some decisions that were made really limited my enjoyment of the film. I still think it is a decent entry, but one of my least favorites of the franchise.

Score: 56% |
Verdict: Decent