The least-good of the bunch, but still good.

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2019)

It pains me to give any installment of The Goldfather' only 8 out of 10. The trilogy is definitely one of my leitmotifs and I rewatch all three about every six months or so. Nevertheless, Part II is probably the least enjoyable to watch, though I would never skip over it.
Why exactly is this? The acting is superb; the cinematography is great; thematically, the film furthers and develops all the notes hit in the first. Nevertheless, the story, while "good" such as it is, it doesn't quite deliver the gripping goods of the first. The backstory of erstwhile Godfather Vito Corleone and the development of his career was worth telling and artistically interesting to contrast with Michael's own headship of the family. Interspersing the two as the editors did may or may not have been a great choice, as it arguably cuts into the building tension of the younger Don's journey.
Still, it's not clear that that journey would, uninterrupted, have made for a gripping drama on par with that of Part I. The first doled out a lot of lavish character development and courtly intrigue with just the right amount of shocking action punctuated in. Whatever the inaccuracies with respect to the real-world mafia, the first certainly captured the dynamic of real-world diplomacy and warfare (whether conventional or criminal) in bouts of rising pressure and preparation sometimes - usually with little of any warning - giving way to open battle. There isn't a ton of action in this one, certainly not on the level of the first.
Still, it makes for a good evening. I tend nowadays to be doing chores when I have it on - I've seen it often enough - but it's not unpleasant to watch and as with the first there is always a lot of "new" stuff to catch or forgotten stuff to rediscover upon rewatch. These are big, dense films, and should leave the real aficionados satisfies in any event.