Shift In The Series.

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2009)

Rocky 3 started a shift in the Rocky series. Instead of dealing with Rocky as an underdog trying to work his way up and establish himself, Rocky 3 has Rocky on top of the world.
Rocky starts defending his title and knocks off ten different challengers. A new young vicious boxer, Clubber Lang, challenges Rocky. Mickey tells Rocky not to fight him because of the fact that Lang is a "wrecking machine" and that all of the people Rocky had beaten previously were nothing like him. Rocky fights him anyways, however tragedy hits prior to the fight and Rocky loses to Lang badly. Apollo Creed then decides to help Rocky train and regain the look he had when he had fought him.
Rocky 3 is different in tone than the previous Rocky Films. Rocky himself acts much differently. As Mickey says Rocky becomes "civilized" and is not acting the role of the underdog who had to work hard to get what he wants. He is a millionaire heavyweight champion of the world, not a guy living in the slums of Philly who gets a chance to go against the heavyweight champion of the world. Rocky seems to be much more civilized and willing to converse in this film than he was in the other two. I can honestly say that I liked the Rocky from Rocky 1 and 2 better but it is interesting to see this change in character.
Rocky 3 is an action packed film. Rocky gets in an exciting fight with Hulk Hogan at the beginning of the film for charity. Also Rocky fights against Clubber Lang TWICE in the ring. Rocky 3 has by far the most action of any of the Rocky Films.
A few complaints. Number one I do not like the way that they killed off Mickey. I am not disappointed with the fact that Mickey dies, sometimes good characters die. I just do not like the way that he died. He gets pushed down by Lang and suffers heart failure. They could have killed him off in a different way that worked better.
Another thing I did not get is how Rocky has the media circus surround him when he is training for his first fight against Lang. It is a complete circus and so unlike Rocky. Maybe this scene just was included to show how Rocky had changed and show how he is losing his edge but I still think it was out of place.
Now for things I did like. I like the shift in character for Apollo Creed and how he helped Rocky to train. This is a perfect example of a bad guy becoming a good guy for the better, there are other times where this does not work. When Apollo decided to help Rocky out it completely surprised me and made me like Apollo better.
This song has different music as well. Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" is the main song of the film and really goes well with the theme of the film, Rocky getting back "The Eye of the Tiger". Overall this is one of the best songs in a movie ever, it just goes good with the film. When Rocky trains with Creed at the end they do play "Gonna Fly Now" but once again it is not the same version as used in the first Rocky film.
So this is the most action packed of the Rocky Series, has a great shift in character for Apollo, and has a great theme song. It is not without its flaws but it is a lot of fun so it is worth seeing for that reason alone.