Its fame outstrips its strength...

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2018)

This is a very good film, with well drawn and engaging characters. It is also impeccably acted which coupled with Coppola's eye for detail really helps the world feel authentic. The script's biting criticism of American capitalism is well done and subtle. It is perhaps too subtle because people tend to miss it upon first viewing.
Nonetheless, the notion that is the best that Hollywood has to offer is nonsense. While the film is is structured as a punitive plot Michael only get his just dessert is Part 3 of the saga. Morally, this film is incomplete until Michael dies along. I would not go so far as to say this film makes evil look good. But both does it straddle the line between making characters you can relate too and character you like. Vito, especially, is a bit too charismatic.
The film is is actually rather rough in places. The hospital scene has a slapped dash quality to it; the wedding sequence has multiple warts in terms of night for day shooting, continuity, deep focus framing etc. Likewise some of the action (i.e. Sonny's beatdown) is stagy and false. On the whole it is exceedingly well directed but Coppola's inexperience (or studio pressure) shows up in places.
This is a very good film. It is not the transcendent experience I was expecting.