Reviews

This thing is just ridiculous; saw it on home video as my first Godfather experience and couldn't figure out why it was so plodding. Turns out it edits everything into chronological order, so you start with all the De Niro scenes from G-2, then see G-1 (minus some R-stuff but plus some deleted scenes), and then get the rest of G-2. The De Niro scenes, out of context, are just repetitive and make little sense. The one bonus was getting to see the deleteds back when such opportunities were rare. It's not quite BAD, because the underlying material is still beautiful, but it could easily lead one to go through life thinking The Godfater was No Big Deal because you'd endured or walked out on this.

There are films I'd be interested to to see a chronological cut of (Pulp Fiction, Memento). Godfather 2 is not one of them.

As you can probably tell from the other comments, this is an easy movie to dislike. It's disjointed, it has no pace, and bits of the plot have way too little explanation.

But, on the other hand, their is a lot of gorgeous camera work and editing. Plus, more importantly, it's a great character exploration. While other people have noted that the characters almost never talk about what they're doing or why they're doing it and are also rather expressionless (which is very much in character for both of them), the movie uses a different means of revealing character: it allows the characters to do absolutely anything. SPOILER ALERT Thus, you learn about who the Eye is not through the explanation at the end but moreso from what he does: abandons his job, escapes his daughter's memory, puts his life in danger, shoots at the police, even commits two homicides, one of which is not remotely justifiable. These show that he is protective of and jealous for Eris, and that there is no limit to what he'll do for her; few hollywood heroes have been able to prove their emotions so fully.

Basically, I'd say that it's the story of someone who is already outside the law (for his job) and who takes a step further and becomes a law in and of itself. There have been a lot of stories where heroes have done this for revenge or for their perception of the good of society. Here he does it for himself and for a woman he loves (in his own sick twisted way).

So I wish this film were better, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who didn't know what they were getting into, but it is very different, and as such I'd rather watch it than a better plotted film which is just like films I've seen before.

The one film I would compare it too is also very flawed: Romeo is Bleeding.