Stallone keeps things chugging along in this sequel, a film building on what was good about its prior entries whilst allowing for fresh avenues.

Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2012)

Something rather amusing happens around about the midway point in 1982's Rocky III, a moment wherein it snaps out of a proverbial daze and realises it is, in fact, betraying its 1976 original's core politic. Ah yes, the original: that film about the underdog being able to pull through and achieve precisely what it is they want even though all seems lost and one is on a road to nowhere. The moment I'm referring to in Rocky III is, of course, when it realises it needs its eponymous and ever-present lead, Rocky Balboa, to go back to not being the the favourite for a huge fight with a hulking African American individual of supreme ability – thus, it plunges them back down the pecking order and into a situation wherein they must strive and train to get (back) to the top. It is a curious thing to see a sports movie as generic as this one begin with its protagonist at the top of his game and seemingly indomitable, but credit to director Sylvester Stallone and the team for worming their way around some tight rapids and down into a stream of engaging formulae that does not grate.
When it begins, it begins with Balboa on the top of the world as the champ. Balboa has trumped all, often flooring them in the process, in a flurry of mean boxing ring set punch-'em-ups inducing a rise in ranking about as meteoric as how opposing boxers have tumbled. Rocky has his name and face up in lights: it is on the television and all over merchandise stretching to that of pinball machines. He is a superstar: he is Rocky Balboa, and yet at once he is Sylvestor Stallone – both men have been catapulted to stardom after 1976's initial outing and both are living this high life of close knit bonds; idolisation and fame. When we observe what appears to be Balboa guesting on The Muppets Show, and having a gentle box with a punching bag, it is in actual fact footage of Stallone on an actual television broadcast made possible through his acting and writing of the original film, while the use of fleeting moments from the aforementioned film winning plaudits at the Academy Awards is symptomatic of these blurred lines between audience's own awareness of Stallone's own off screen exploits and Balboa's fictitious achievements.
Two of these matches have been, no less, that of fellow boxing champion Apollo Creed, whose own story in the second film was as interesting as Rocky's was in the first film and whose ego in the first synced up with how fantastic Rocky thought he was in the second. The portrayals sort of even themselves out, I guess, and in III, they're actually on pretty good terms with room for something more in the form of a mentoring relationship. A man has an eye on Balboa during these moments of fame and he is Clubber Lang (Mr. T), a man who stares on discouragingly from the sides at Rocky being lauded come the end of another victory as all others in the auditorium cheer. Lang makes for a meaner, cruder and more imbalanced substitute for Creed; a tough talking African American who has a habit of winning and sees himself as invincible. For the most part, Lang is the underdog but he is unpleasant and spits these tirades of self congratulatory euphemisms on top of derogatory remarks aimed at our lead – at least when Rocky came to hear or speak of Creed in 1976's first film, it was a little more along the lines of common courtesy and respect. Indeed, when Lang sees fit to go so far as to systematically insult the man's wife and masculinity, the film has placed us firmly within the camp of this time gunning for the incumbent champ over the sprightly newcomer, something which goes against the franchise-to-this-point's politic and something which is actually muscled into being inverted following an initial bout.
As was with Rocky II, one feels you'd have to be in a fairly bad mood to come away not having enjoyed it. No doubt there are arguments that it is overly derivative, while there cannot be much denying that it is a tad simplistic at times. A charity match with a wrestler, two sports-persons top of their respective contact sporting worlds, eats up time and is a bit of a boorish sequence designed to induce cheap conflicting thrills, although it does point out how vulnerable Rocky is when up against a monster of a man whose desire and drive to triumph appears unnatural given the circumstances. And yes, there is that seemingly obligatory framework to do with Balboa and his personal life clashing with his professional one - his actual walking away from the field in the form of retirement an event which is lost and forgotten by the time everything else has been said and done such is the scope for brutish spectacle and emotional wringers, but it all pulls together.
There is room for one of the more predominant characters to be killed off, in what is an affecting scene, whereas the subplot of two rivals from instalments gone by working together is a refreshing touch. There is a raw energy to the film, it keeps itself afloat by going over similar paths up upping antes: Lang is the level up as an opponent from Creed; Rocky has more to loose now in the form of a young son able to be conscientious of the risks his father takes; Balboa seeks training from a man who has been to the same heights he has and most come to learn that the only way from the top is back down again, in spite for prior perceptions of one's ability and status. As Stallone very gradually cranks up the affinity we have towards these characters, one cannot help but look forward to the following entries.