A dull and pointless sequel

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2015)

After its two excellent predecessors, this is bitterly disappointing. None of the various story lines are terribly interesting and I think that the kissing cousins plot was a dreadful idea. The best parts of the film are the scenes between Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, who play the tense relationship between Michael and Kay very well, but their performances are not on the same level as in the first two films. This would not have been a major problem if the film had been better but it places far too much reliance on the previous films to the point that it is difficult to fully understand or even care about the characters and events if you are not familiar with them.
I wasn't very interested in the idea of Michael's quest for redemption but could have been handled far better. The film was nominated for Best Picture but I don't think that it deserved to be. It felt more like someone else trying to emulate the "Godfather" films than a true "Godfather" film itself. For instance, the intertwining of the killings with the opera performance was a failed attempt to recreate the brilliant baptism scene of the first film. At 2 hours and 50 minutes, it was far too long and very badly paced. Honestly, my favourite line in the film is when Joey Zasa says, "And we got Don Ameche, who played the guy that invented the telephone" since Ameche is one of my all time favourite actors.
The best newcomers are the always brilliant Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna and Donal Donnelly. George Hamilton and Bridget Fonda are wasted. Robert Duvall's absence is extremely noticeable and Andy Garcia, who is not a very good actor, is just forgettable as Vincent. Sofia Coppola's performance as Mary Corleone is pretty horrific but much of the blame has to be attributed to her father Francis Ford Coppola for casting her. He should have been able to see that she could not act to save her life. One of her lines - delivered atrociously - is "Dad, why are you doing this to me?" I'd have said the same thing in real life if I were her. Coppola's well known propensity for nepotism proved successful in the casting of his sister Talia Shire in this trilogy - she has more screen time in this film than the first two combined but far less interesting material, incidentally - and his nephew Nicolas Cage in "Peggy Sue Got Married". However, after Winona Ryder dropped out of this film, it would have probably been a good idea if he looked for an actress outside of his immediate family to replace her.
Overall, this is not a dreadful or even a particularly bad one. It's just dull. However, I don't think that this is a film that needed to be made. This is the weakest final entry in a film trilogy that I have ever seen. It's certainly for the best that "The Godfather Part IV" was never made.