Underwhelming but not bad

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2014)

I can see why.
I can see why some people who watched the first 2 movies were severely disappointed after seeing this one.
Watching this third movie right after the first two felt like somebody had dug up bits and pieces of Godfather I and II at some archaeological site and then tried to create the third movie based on the style of the found artifacts. All the aging actors are now trying to remember whom they were playing in the original movies and the director is standing in the corner trying to remember how to direct and the writers got pens in their mouth and their eyes on the ceiling trying to recall how the story ended.
While the 2nd Godfather film had flown almost seamlessly out of the first, much about this third film is different. The tone has changed, with Al Pacino as Michael Corleone giving a much more subdued and humorous performance with those rising eyebrows that started dominating his later career. The people act contrary to their characters established by the first two movies. They try to make the gangster Michael Corleone some sort of anti-hero in this one, which is missing the point of the series.
But at the same time the creators expect you to have watched the first two, because right from the start references are made to characters from the first two films without much explanation.
Al Pacino is still good. But some of the other people are not as good. There is a certain Sofia Coppola who plays Corleone's daughter. Maybe the problem is that English was not her native language or she just had a bad year, but this lady really phones in her performance. Something goes wrong in the intonation at the end of every sentence she utters. And it doesn't help when the text she is given is not very good.
In fact, the movie takes a number of dips in the quality of the dialogue. I got flashbacks about Star Wars prequels while listening to some of it. It is trying to be dramatic or poetic but often comes off as fake. It's not all bad though.
The story centers on one of Corleone relatives played by Andy Garcia and that guy is always good, especially in gangster roles.
Godfather III has its good and its bad times. It is unfortunately overshadowed by the greatness of its predecessors. Therefore, the best I can suggest is to for the viewers to do the same as what the movies did: watch the first and the second movie and then wait a while. Watch the third movie a few weeks or even years later. That way the contrast will not be as startling.