Not necessary to see Godfather III

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2001)

I just watched Godfather III for the first time. Godfather I and II were two of the greatest films of all time. However, although the third is a decent film, it is nowhere near the level of the others.
Michael Corleone, as the Don, is supposed to be a powerful man. In no point in this movie does Michael actually look like a Don. This is a far cry from the strong character he was in the second movie. This may well be showing the fall of organized crime, but I don't think that was Coppola's intention, and if it was he did a bad job of conveying that message. Also, Connie is suddenly a powerful character. Apparently all of Coppola's strong characters were dead so he had to take the only recognizable character that was left and make her some sort of family business matriarch. In the first two movies she had nothing to do with the family business. The plot in this movie is also disjointed and confusing. At the beginning of the movie it seems like Michael barely recognizes Vincent Mancini, but throughout the film Vincent is his right hand man. This made no sense at all.
******6 out of 10******