In Some Ways Even Better Than the First One...

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2006)

Seven years after the first film, Michael Corelone (Al Pacino) continues his family's quest to become legitimate. Also, more on his father's growing up in Sicily and coming to America. With Vito being played not by Marlon Brando, but Robert DeNiro.) If you liked the first film, you will like this film. If you didn't, you won't. It's really that simple, since you have all the same great people coming together for this film with just as solid a script and acting as you did the first time. You lose Marlon Brando, but you get Robert DeNiro. I consider that a fair trade.
This film has two things going for it: it has the early years of Don Corleone, which really fills in the missing mythos around the family. Without this, the film would appear to show the Corelones were always powerful, which is far from the truth. It does not explain how Don Corelone grew to talk in such a mumbled voice, though.
Also, I really enjoyed the entire Cuba sequence, because it put the film in a historical time frame (and I like Cuba). I was never fully sure when the first film was taking place, but this one made sure I knew the years when Don Coreleone was growing up and that the present day was not 1974, but rather in roughly 1958-1959. That changed my perspective on things completely.
If you have invested three hours in the first film, invest three more in this one. Why only get half the story of Vito Corleone? I cannot make any suggestions for part three, though, one way or the other.