A Good but Not Great Sequel (The First Part is Way Better)

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2019)

I commend Coppola for taking on Pt 2 and filling in a bit of Viteo Corleone's history, and continuing Michael's saga, with parallels between the two.
It was a good sequel, but I didn't find it as engaging as the first one, which I've seen countless number of times. I just watched Pt 2 recently after not having seen it for a number of years.
I'm not sure why it doesn't have the same feeling as the first. I think the lack of direction (i.e. a clear plot line) didn't help. There was an attempt on Michael's life, and there was talk here and there of doing some extra business, but a lot of it just seemed vague. Much of the movie was spent on the strained relationship between Michael and his family.
Another missed opportunity was explaining Don Vito Corleone's rise to power. You see him assassinate the neighbourhood Don at one point, but then we fast forward years later when he's grown a mustache and is doing favors for people, and vice versa. But we don't get any information on whether he's affiliated with the crime boss that was the boss of the guy he killed, or if he had formed a completely different family. I guess that would have been a 4.5hr movie.
Overall, a good, but not great sequel. Not as quotable either, like the first movie. Did it deserve the Best Oscar Nom and Win. I guess so. There were a lot of great movies that year. But I think the juggernaut of the Godfather saga was too much to pass up giving it the win.