Here is my review of the Rocky vs Drago movie plus a photo with the movie poster. Guess who walked out with it!
So I went to see the Rocky vs Drago Director’s Cut film last night.
Here are 2 spoilers that shouldn’t be spoilers. Apollo still dies and Rocky still wins.
So the movie had approximately 40 minutes of new footage. It also kept approximately the same run time so with 40 minutes of new footage, there is nearly 40 minutes of omitted footage.
Now for some spoilers. If you don’t want anything spoiled, I suggest you stop reading here.
There were two shots that I really hoped would have been edited out for this film but somehow still made it in. I’ll get to them later.
So I’ll breakdown some of the changes/additions/omissions and give my thoughts.
1) New opening. Usually, it starts with the ROCKY title scrolling across the bottom to one of the series signature songs. Then it breaks into the last round of the previous movie. This movie starts with various clips from Rocky 3 including Rocky’s loss to Clubber Lang, Apollo talking him out of retiring, and the climatic fight scene. It completely omits the Rocky and Apollo sparring session. I was not a fan of the new opening. I am used to the normal movie openings that last 2-3 minutes and set the stage for the new installment. I wasn’t a fan of the song they used “Sweetest Victory” which is on the Rocky IV soundtrack but never used in the original.
2) No robot. While this was seen as a cross between corny and creepy (Paulie’s girlfriend?), the omission of the robot, likely due to licensing agreements, meant that many scenes with Paulie or Rocky Jr had to be cut including Paulie’s birthday scene.
3) The new Drago introduction press conference explains that they tried to arrange a fight with Rocky. I thought that was good but they cut out Drago’s wife comparing him to Popeye eating spinach. In fact, a lot of Brigitte Nielsen’s dialogue was cut. Could it be because of her “rocky” relationship with Stallone?
4) The reasoning for Apollo to take the fight was improved. Yes, he still shows up out of nowhere and part of the table scene had to be cut (no robot, remember) but they talked about how Rocky ignored the challenge and Apollo feeling the need to take it.
5) I thought the omission of the whole pre-fight dressing room scene with Rocky and Apollo was a mistake. Not only does it cut one of my favorite lines “I didn’t say anything about snails, I said Nails N-N-Nails” but it shows Apollo’s overconfidence and Rocky’s trepidation. The only part of the original dressing room scene that is preposterous is where Rocky was trying to convince Apollo to postpone. Seriously, who postpones 5 minutes before they are scheduled to walk to the ring?
6) The Creed-Drago fight was greatly improved. Except for the one shot they left in from the original where Apollo is clearly not wearing gloves. They missed that edit the first time. How did they miss it again? The fight was extended and Apollo got up after an early knockdown and kept trying to fight back.
7) Apollo’s funeral was extended and improved with his father-figure Duke giving a speech and Rocky giving a more emotional speech.
8) The scene with the boxing commission not sanctioning the fight between Rocky and Drago was included as it was shown in the original 1985 trailer but cut from that movie.
9) The scene of Rocky talking to his son before leaving was extended and improved.
10) The training montages were slightly changed and some edits to the scenes in Russia.
11) The final fight was still enjoyable. There were some added elements to it.
12) Two of the better movie speeches were changed to voiceovers. Apollo in the dressing room telling Rocky he would understand when it was over was changed to voiceover in Rocky’s head. The epic speech to Adrian where he said Drago would have to kill him to beat him was also changed to an inner-monologue voiceover. I definitely think that was a mistake because it takes the charm away from seeing the facial expressions of Apollo and Rocky respectively as they said those lines.
13) The moment before the final round when Drago’s manager ran from his balcony seat with the Kremlin to berate Drago in his corner. I was hoping that if any scene was cut, it would be that one. I would rather there be a scene of Paulie marrying the robot and announcing she was pregnant than this scene. I hated it in 1985 (when I was 9 years old) and I hate it now. There is 60 seconds between rounds of a boxing match. This man ran from the balcony, through the crowd, got to Drago’s corner, and berated him in less than one minute. Drago, for having endured 14 punishing rounds, is able to stand up and lift him with one arm before dropping him off the apron. Talk about taking some serious liberties.
14) The fight end. You get used to the way a Rocky fight ends. He scores the big knockdown, his opponent struggles to get up, and ultimately falls back down as the count reaches 10. This one, Drago goes down, makes a move to get back up, a falls flat. The referee stops with no count at all. I also hated Rocky’s leap at the end. In the original, he was lifted in the air as he stood there exhausted by triumphant. This one looks like he is able to do a leaping swan dive into a pool.
15) The speech is different. He couldn’t reference his kid because showing him would show the robot. I was glad in a way they cut the scenes of the kids watching the fight. It always posed some serious questions to me. If Rocky, Adrian, and Paulie were all in Russia, who was watching the 9 year old kid? The robot? Who is going to let an unsupervised 9 year old watch a fight where there is a fear that his father could be killed? The part of the speech that was comical was Rocky’s talk about change. He mentioned his friend (Apollo) couldn’t change and now he’s dead. Wow. Way to perk up the crowd there, Rock!
Overall it was enjoyable. The changed scenes and alternate takes threw off the cadence so you were in truth watching a new movie. There were a lot of scenes in this film that I prefer to the original (the extended Creed-Drago fight, the extended funeral, Rocky meeting with the commission). There were some scenes that I think should have been kept (Rocky and Apollo in the dressing room, Mrs. Drago talking about her husband, etc). There were a few things that I definitely prefer the original, most notably the superior intro scrolling logo/final round of previous movie scene.
So in my conclusion, there needs to be a Director’s Cut of the Director’s Cut and combine the best of the original and the best of the new version.
We can call this one “Rocky IV Take III: The Tornado Cut”
Tornado
Photo by Ryan Hafey – PBC
Photo by Golden Boy Promotions