I'm divided on whether the flashback structure complements the film's goals or whether it is just distracting. On one hand, it shows a direct comparison between the early life of Vito and Michael. On the other hand, the time skips keep interrupting the flow of the film. Personally, I feel that Vito's prequel story was far more interesting and the time skips weren't timed with good purpose so I lean a bit towards the "distracting" interpretation. The story is quite different from The Godfather and it really feels like a new film that is not tied down by its predecessor, which is good. The style and cinematography are even better than the original, especially in Vito's story. However, it suffers from the same pacing issues as the first film and I would not call it a masterpiece.