When I first heard the news that Sylvester Stallone was interested in reviving his seminal Rocky franchise, I had to laugh. How Sly could possibly justify a 60-year-old boxer getting back in the ring for one last round seemed too far-fetched for words. Yet at the same time, I knew that when it was released I had to see it. No matter how terrible it would inevitably be, I knew it had to at least be better than the horrendous Rocky V.

Luckily for me and many other Rocky fans, it seems that Stallone has forgotten the embarrassment of the fifth installment in the series. This can even be seen in the title of the movie being Rocky Balboa rather than Rocky VI. It’s almost as if the fifth movie never happened.

There is a sense of going back to the roots of the franchise with this film. Much of the first half of the film is set in the same Philadelphia neighborhood made famous in the original Rocky.

This film finds Rocky lamenting the death of his beloved Adrian, who died several years before of “the woman cancer” as Rocky so eloquently puts it. One might assume that Talia Shire (who played Adrian in the previous five films) simply did not want her name associated with a sixth and perhaps superfluous Rocky. Having Rocky mourn his departed wife throughout the film adds a bit of dramatic weight to the Rocky character not seen in previous films in the franchise.

The mourning of his wife’s passing and the constant shots of the old neighborhood really help to play up the nostalgic aspects of the film. Rocky knows he is growing old and does not want his life to go to waste without one last chance to shine in the ring. He even goes so far to petition for, and eventually be granted, a license to box professionally again—a decision that is met with much scrutiny by the licensing board. But the question remains as to how in the world will a champion in his prime result to fighting the “Balboasaurus” as Rocky is called by the press.

An ESPN-created virtual fight pits Rocky Balboa in his prime versus the current undefeated heavyweight champion, Mason “The Line” Dixon, which shows Rocky winning. Dixon is played by Antonio Tarver, the recently dethroned light-heavyweight champion in the real world of boxing.

Tarver plays Dixon as a very real character, perhaps because he is, well, actually a boxer. Despite the comical name associated with several other Rocky foes, Dixon is not nearly as flamboyant as, say, Clubber Lang from Rocky III.

Dixon is seen as soft since he has never faced any real competition (a direct parallel to the real heavyweight division in boxing these days), and thus easily loses to the Italian Stallion in the virtual fight. This piques interest in the Dixon camp over possibly staging some sort of charity bout between Dixon and Balboa after it is learned that Rocky actually wants to fight again.

The first part of the movie is a nice attempt to establish a sense of what the main characters in the series are now doing. This is fine for the most part, but it does tend to drag a bit. Everyone in the theater is there to see Rocky fight, as well as one of those classic training montages set to the score of Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now.”

If the first half of the movie moves slower than it should, the latter half is almost a blur. It seems like only a few minutes pass between Rocky accepting the invitation to fight and then stepping into the ring to take on Dixon. I wanted more of a training montage than what we were given—it was entertaining, mind you, but I suppose I am just greedy and want more.

The fight scene is well-orchestrated. As can be expected, Rocky is able to hold his own against the much younger Dixon. This fight might be one of the best in the history of the franchise if only for the reason it is entertaining to see Balboa go toe-to-toe with a presumed superior opponent.

Rocky Balboa is the sixth and hopefully final installment in the venerable Rocky film series. People who were perhaps expecting loads of self-parody, a terrible plot and bad acting may just be surprised that this movie is not actually all that bad. I may just be saying this as a fan of the franchise, but I truly believe that this is a decent film. Let’s hope Stallone realizes that the way this film ends is really the best way to bring the Rocky films to a close and that there is no need for one final round after this.