Yes, DeNiro, Keaton, Pacino etc all give great perfomances, the intrigues are there, and the technical aspect ruled, but all in all this is a lesser beast than the first one, who had originality, more tension, more action, and even better actors. But the first Godfather is, after all, one of the best movies ever made. Since that time, other movies did come out on the same subject, and good ones like Untoucheables and the Tarantino stuff, so I have problems explaining why it suddenly got rated so much.

It didn't age really especially well neither (while the original is timeless), yet there's no doubts that it is still a good mob movie, if a bit over-rated. It is roughly equal to the third act overall, which is as inexplicably reviled as this one is lauded.