Overrated (*SPOILERS*)

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2004)

Wow, what an overrated movie. And since I obviously hold the minority opinion on that, let me elaborate. First, I've seen only the first movie, not II or III. This review is about the first movie, and I was expecting it to stand up as its own movie, which it did not for me.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I'll start with the things I liked. The acting is pretty good, with the exception of a few scenes. Some of the scenery is good, notably the parts that take place in Italy. The portrayal of the different characters and the motivation behind their actions is well done in a fairly complex plot. So, overall, I can see how people would say it's a well-made movie. That's about it.
So what did I not like? The Godfather simply did not entertain me.
The biggest disappointment was that there really was no major character I could identify with. All the men were basically a bunch of lying, cheating, murderous sons of bees, and I'm not just talking about the family business. They treat their women TERRIBLY. Carlo abuses his wife (there's no excuse to take it to that level, even if it's "business"). Sonny, a married man with kids of his own, is seen with mistresses. Even Michael, who might have been the one character I could somewhat identify with, leaves for Italy, stays away more than a year without so much as a peep to his girlfriend Kay, gets married, watches his wife blown to pieces, then shows up in the States again one day and proposes to Kay out of the blue. ("Did you miss me? Now that my secret wife exploded in flames, I guess that makes you #2 on my list, and oh by the way, I need you, I love you, ooh baby baby, please marry me." What total crap.) Then near the end, he refuses to answer her simple question, she (unbelievably) keeps asking, he relents, and with a dramatic pause, he finally lies to her. And she believes him, even just for a few seconds? You've got to be kidding. How can I like a movie when I really don't find myself sympathizing with any of the characters?
The violence - not well done. Am I really to believe that a man sleeping on his bed wakes up and discover his horse's severed head placed under the sheet at his feet, with blood covering his own hands and arms? Yeah, that could happen while I sleep... NOT. And what terrible acting when the guy sees the horse head and keeps screaming! Also, the scene where Moe gets shot - look at the bullet hole in his eyeglasses - it's unbelievably small. Was he shot with a needle gun? People might view this as nit-picking, but it really jumped out at me while watching the movie, and it bothered me. And what about Sonny's murder? Is it really necessary to have his killers fire 300 bullets, and to show the whole thing? Look - when the whole premise of a movie is violence, it had better be well-done violence, especially when all the characters are such scoundrels and I don't care who lives and who dies.
One of the best movies ever? Hardly. I'd put it in my top 300, because I've probably seen about 300 movies in my life. For some movies, you see them once and if you don't like them or you don't quite understand them, you're at least intrigued enough to want to watch them again. For me, this is not one of those movies.