Does anyone else get the feeling that it’s time for Rocky to finally fade and be remembered as a legend, not someone that continued to hang on make one movie after another while people were wondering just when it was going to end? It would appear, as Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb writes, that Sylvester Stallone is ready and willing to make another movie that will take Rocky out of his comfort zone, way out of it in fact, as he takes on the training of a young fighter that was deported after being in the country illegally. Traveling to the fighter’s home country he decides to take it upon himself to take up the role of a trainer once more and become the voice of wisdom as he was for Adonis Creed. There’s only one problem with that.
Remember when Rocky pounded fists with Adonis in Creed II and said “It’s your time now.” ? Yeah, that’s a humongous issue for a lot of people since it felt like the passing of the torch had already happened, and in fact it had even been discussed on social media that Michael B. Jordan was now going to carry on the legacy that Rocky had created for so long, becoming the fighter that this new era seems to need. This is the inherent problem with bringing out the idea that there needs to be another Rocky without Creed. Needless to say it would be kind of a goof if the son of Clubber Lang suddenly showed up and demanded to take on Creed for what Rocky had done to his father, as to be honest and truthful Clubber was a monster but he and Rocky at least didn’t have anything between them but pride and a championship. Clubber didn’t kill Mick after all, he was just an aggressive jerk with a huge chip on his shoulder. Drago was the one that killed someone in the ring and it was because Apollo had told Rocky not to stop the fight no matter what. Adonis made the same decision in Creed II and Rocky made the same decision, to let it go.
Now he needs to let the franchise go since it’s in capable hands. Rocky got to reunite with his son at the end of the movie, he got to meet his grandchild, and Adonis had a life to see to with his wife and child. Things were wrapped as far as Rocky could go, and it would seem that it’s time to move on. Stallone has been doing this for a little while now as he’s been bringing back his old characters seemingly to give them fitting ends, only to give them a breather before he throws himself back into the fray yet again. If you need an example apart from Rocky, just look at Rambo and The Expendables, as there have been rumors that there might be fourth movie coming out, and there’s already been confirmation for a while concerning another Rambo movie. All this comes on the tail of the last movies finally showing some closure, or at least a chance for closure, to pass the torch and move on.
There’s nothing saying that we don’t want to see Stallone and old dogs of the action genre any longer, but it does need to be said that the old franchises need to be laid to rest finally to allow new material to come in. Keeping the old stars around to show up in one movie after another would be great since they’re proven to make money and draw people in, but at the same time the old characters need to finally be allowed to rest. Rambo managed to go home, Rocky reunited with his family, and Barney had trained a new batch of recruits that could take over eventually or at least lighten the load. It’s time to step down just a bit and let some of the movies rest and become legends for others to enjoy, and to let the new wave of action heroes step in and either sink or swim. Rocky has been a great movie for a long time now, and despite the slight missteps along the way it would seem that people are at least willing to agree that the story has been something that has inspired a lot of people in its time.
Some people would love to see the story move on and keep going in a new direction, but the chances are pretty good that it’s going to be the same story just told a different way with the same elements factored in. Rocky isn’t meant to just up and retire and fade away until he’s gone, but if you want the honest to goodness truth, that’s almost what it seemed like was going to happen at the end of Rocky Balboa, as he faded off into the distance after the iconic words “Adrian, we did it.”
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