Not too sure what to think of the ending here.
Rocky haunted by not throwing the towel in quickly enough for Apollo years before shows what - nothing learned? - by not throwing the towel in for Adonis.
Drago meanwhile - despite his absolute desperation for a redemptive victory - in the end shows his compassion / love for his son by making the right decision quickly enough.
I thought that was interesting. Was Drago the good guy in the end?
I felt surprisingly sorry for Viktor Drago. He was manipulated into fighting by Ivan so that Viktor could redeem him, which wasn't Viktor's responsibility in the first place. Ivan was, ultimately, the loser who created his own situation. Plus, Viktor's mother abandoned him and his father through no fault of his; she left because Ivan lost.
Viktor was a sad character. Honestly, I was kind of rooting for him at the end even though I knew what was going to happen.
I agree. I like Viktor Drago more than the Creed character, who came across as arrogant and whiny and self-important.
There is tragedy and heart in Viktor. I would love to see him get redemption in a future film, although that is unlikely.
"Rocky haunted by not throwing the towel in quickly enough for Apollo"
That was a false premise to begin with, i.e., had Rocky thrown the towel it wouldn't have made any difference, because the referee had already tried to step in to stop the fight and Drago threw him across the ring and kept punching Apollo. In reality Drago would have been arrested, because as soon as the referee tried to stop the fight, the boxing match was over, at which point Drago was committing assault and battery, which is a criminal act, and since that criminal act resulted in Apollo's death, some form of manslaughter or murder charge would apply too.
The Drago side was perfect. The Dragos lost the fight, but in the end they were together -- a father and his son. Just the two of them against the world. Unlike Creed, Viktor still has his father because they learned from their mistakes and made better decisions.
shareYou’re spot on in your observations OP. As a matter of fact I’m enraged by Ivan’s stupidity, selfishness & arrogance in this film.
To me the whole thing doesn’t make any sense but I guess they needed a plot for this movie so this was it. Didn’t he (Ivan) learn anything from his fight with Rocky then? Especially since it’s “Better that 2 men beat each other’s brains in rather than 20 million people” or however it went, sorry I couldn’t be bothered to research the quote but you know what I mean.
Ivan I thought had that lesson ingrained in his soul then, that he had understood & had come to learn what Rock was about & had enough of the BS of his own people. Where he saw all those party officials, the ones who set everything up & put him in the ring for “Russia” show their true colors.
He seems like the type to have come to respect his opponent & gracefully walk away. That’s how I always saw him.
What I didn’t see him as, was someone who was embittered for all those years over his loss that he trained his son as a fighter when he could’ve been something else to get the championship that he never won.
First off it was stupid because that wouldn’t have been him against Rocky, that ship had sailed & there was only so much satisfaction winning against Adonis, who wasn’t a blood relative of Rock’s protege or not.
I’m sorry but this is not how I saw Ivan at all or thought this how his life would’ve turned after his fight with Rocky. It’s not how I believed he would be, but again the morons who wrote the script needed some sort of plot so unfortunately this is what they made him for this.