9. Rocky Balboa
Where It Went Wrong: A lack of Rocky in the ring during Rocky V and attempting serious drama.
How It Re-Succeeded: Putting the Italian Stallion back in the ring, throwing subtlety out the window. Everyone loves Rocky, and that's just a scientific fact. The Italian Stallion's first franchise entry won Oscars, and though it soon descended into Hulk Hogan, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago-inspired silliness, the core of what made the original successful was still there. It was just about a man defying the odds and achieving superhuman feats through the sheer force of being punched. After IV, where the franchise truly and awesomely jumped the shark by having Rocky basically end the Cold War through the power of being punched in the face, you could argue there was nowhere else to go. And being fair, Sly Stallone agreed with you, attempting to take his franchise back to basics by having fate kick Rocky in the balls a couple of times. He went bankrupt, found he had brain damage and saw his prodigy fighter poached by a Don King-a-like. In between this, he lost the respect of his son. It was all a bit odd, really. We didn't come to a Rocky film to watch everyone's favorite word-mangler get battered by life, we watched it for the insane boxing and ridiculous overcoming of obstacles. The fact V ended in a street brawl was the final nail in the coffin, and we were all prepared to bury Rocky, viewing it as an awesome franchise with a poor ending. But then Rocky Balboa came along and changed this. Look, I'm not going to pretend it was the best film ever, but it did its job, and did it well. It re-discovered the rich seam of bonkers sentimentality which the first few films mined expertly and started where it left off, showcasing a geriatric Rocky shorn of Adrian and still slightly distanced from his financier son. It had plot, but this time went no-holds-barred with the preposterous spectacles, allowing an arthritic(!) Rocky to force-punch his way to a split-decision loss(!) against the undefeated Heavyweight Champion Of The World. The fact this guy was around 40 years younger than the Italian Stallion, was a reliable contender for the greatest heavyweight of all time and of prime boxing age mattered not this was
Rocky, dammit. Nothing's going to stand in his way, and it was great to see this insane can-do attitude brought back to the franchise.