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I have heard from friends and family and read from other reviewers that the rest of the Rocky films after the first one are absolutely irrelevant and almost served no purpose in the slightest. However, when I saw the sequel to Rocky, I absolutely loved it and I can't understand why people didn't give this one as much credit as the first film. It was epic, emotional and quite intense throughout the entire film which is almost exactly what a boxing film is all about. The boxing fights kept me off the edge of my seat especially this one and the first film. However, one weakness that the Rocky series has up until Rocky VI is that every time there is a new Rocky film, they end and begin almost the exact same way. However, they all begin straight after the previous film (only II, III, IV and V do that anyway).
After Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed fought each other in the ring, they were rushed to the hospital. After both were released, Rocky moved on and lives up to his newfound fortune and his marriage to Adrian. After failed attempts at making commercials, and being laid off at a local meat company, Rocky decides to go back to being a boxer, but Adrian disapproves Rocky's decision as she is concerned for his well-being, and it effects his training, even though his trainer, Mickey Goodmill now wants him to fight right-handed. Meanwhile, Apollo became exceedingly angry at the rude and nasty comments on his fight with Rocky, eager for a rematch with him, Apollo even went public about it then, Adrian fell into a coma after delivering her and Rocky's baby, after a few days, she awakens and was given the baby, which was named Rocky Jr. Then, Rocky continues his training, and then the fight begins, Apollo is still angry, but Rocky is more determined than ever to win.
Sylvester Stallone, why did you not ever give any other great performances in your career like you did with the first three and the sixth Rocky films? It isn't a performance that was Oscar worthy like the first film but he wasn't that far off from that level again. We see a slightly softer Rocky than what we saw in the first film and in my honest opinion; he was a stronger and more powerful character in the sequel than the first one. Talia Shire was great once again as Adrian. She became a whole new woman in the sequel than she did in the first one seeing as she broke out of her shy ways and became a lot more confident in herself and the fact she was the girlfriend and then wife of one of the most popular boxers around that time helped her as well. Carl Weathers was great once again as Apollo Creed (boxing enemy of Rocky's) who became even more of an enemy to Rocky than in the first film so therefore that made the final rematch even more exciting and tense than the one in the first film.
After John G. Avildsen's successful direction due to winning the Academy Award for Best Director, Sylvester Stallone himself decided to step up as director as well as playing the leading role and writer of the film. He did a great job with this one especially in the fast moving boxing scenes where Stallone is controlling behind the camera as well as in front of it. That is quite a tough challenge for a scene where shots will be changing almost every second. I have always thought that Sylvester Stallone is decent director but can't really write scripts very well (except for the first three and last Rocky film which he did well in).
Overall, Rocky II is in my opinion, one of the best sequels of all time! It certainly did live up to the greatness of its predecessor but I did think that the Rocky series should have ended after the second one when Rocky was on top of the world and hadn't and wouldn't have felt any better but I did like Rocky III. From the third one onwards perhaps made the series a money-grubbing series that became quite irrelevant and didn't really need to be made (almost like the Star Wars prequel trilogy even though I really like those). Great sequel that needn't be missed!
