So this was a movie that killed two birds: It’s next up on the AFI Top 100 podcast and the next category up on the rather-neglected Letterboxd Challenge is a movie longer than three hours, which this very comfortably is, at 3:20.

So, I know the critical consensus is that this movie is just as good as the first one, maybe even better, but… I don’t see it. The first movie was a sprawling epic that nevertheless was focused on the kind of changing of the guard — the shift in what the crime world was and the personal arc of Michael Corleone. This movie is… just a bunch of stuff. It kinda keeps telling Michael’s story, in a way we didn’t really need (ask anyone who’s only seen the first movie, “what happens to Michael from here?” and this is pretty much the story they’ll tell you, because the whole point of the first movie was him settling into a destiny he’d fought against); it reprises some elements from the first movie; and it intersperses in flashbacks to a young Vito, in a way that clearly mirrors what Michael is going through (but why did we need another mirror when his story is mirroring the first movie already?)

It’s well-made on a craft level, and I was happy to watch it for its full length (though my wife checked out to her phone pretty quickly), but to my tastes, it was clearly an inferior sequel that didn’t have much to say, and ended up as just a way for Godfather fans to marinate in the world of the Corleones for another few hours.

I’d say it’s only recommended to Godfather super-fans, but obviously mine is a minority opinion, so probably if you’re watching the first one and don’t hate it, you should go on to the second just to have your own opinion. But if I were creating the AFI Top 100 list, there’s no way I’d put this on here. One Godfather is plenty.