Rocky Balboa

You know this was the story that SHOULD have been told in Rocky V, or at least this is the kind of story that should have been told.

Unfortunately it is a story told sans Talia Shire, who along with Burt Young and Carl Weathers are Rocky staples... of course Creed was dead in the timeline, so his absence is excusable... but we all kind of wanted to see Adrian, and wanted another story that developed her especially since they kind of stopped developing her as of Rocky III and relegated her to the sidelines.

But, you got to see a typical Rocky story. You got to see Rocky dig in and be inspiring again... and that is why we all love Rocky stories isn't it? Rovky V lacked the inspiration, Rocky Balboa came back with full force and it has continued though Creed, and, hopefully, when I get around to watching it, it will be there in Creed II as well.

The magic is that it comes back to the Rocky I and II dynamic, where it's not just about boxing, it's about Rocky and his story. And that is what we all missed in III and IV, and was attempted but failed miserably in V.

It felt like an early Rocky film, it felt like both an end and a rebirth of the franchise, and it was a very satisfying film to watch... especially given didn't really pull the punch we were all dreading and hit us full force.