The Godfather Trilogy

I had never watched the trilogy till recently, one of those things you’ve always meant to get round to watching, but never have. So after a discussion , in which this fact arose, I was leant the boxset, and have now spent the best part of ten hours educating myself.

Part I
Number 2 in the American Film Institute’s 100 years…100movies, a list of the 100 greatest American films ever made, second only to cinema benchmark Citizen Kane.

There’s an episode of Family Guy, in which Peter tells his family that he doesn’t much care for The Godfather, and their all shocked, but I think I have to agree. It may have been a groundbreaking film in 1972, but there isn’t any artistic flare, there maybe an impressive cast Al Pacino, James Cann, Robert Duvall and Marlon Brando, a role for which he won an Oscar, but there isn’t anything special about his, or any of the other performances.
Theres also a lot of pointless material in the film, such as Michael’s time in Scilly, this whole sub-plot as no real relevance to the rest of the story, and just wastes half an hour , as all of a sudden hes back in America, picking up were he left off.
Nevermind the second best American film of all time, its more like the most over-rated film of all time, and certainly one of the biggest disappointments.
　
Part II
This a weird fish, both a prequel and a sequel, making it both brilliant and rubbish at the same time. The Prequel element, which is cut through out the film, focuses on Vito Corleone, his arrival in America, his introduction to the world of crime and eventual rise to crime lord. This section of the film is brilliant, and would have made a superb film in itself. The young Vito being excellently portrayed by Robert De Niro, a role for which he , deservedly, won the Oscar for best Supporting Actor.
Then we have the sequel element, which is frankly as disappointing as the first film. Part II is often called superior to the original, and it’s the prequel/sequel treatment that gives it this edge, because if it was all sequel, I don’t think I could have stomached a third instalment.

Part III
By many this is called the worst of three, or to but it another way ‘the shit one’ , but again I have to disagree with popular consensus, and say that I found this the most entertaining of the lot, don’t get me wrong this is only achieved due to pre-knowledge of all the events that went before it. However the love element between cousins Andy Garcia and Sofia Coppola is almost as laughable as Coppola’s acting, and generally brings not so much as sense of Greek tragedy as Meek tragedy, as we reach the final and Coppola's death,  an ending so blatant, You could see it so far off, that not even Nelson holding the telescope to his bad eye could have missed it.
It does have the classic line ‘just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in’, but now I’m out I staying out .