I love The Godfather, the original film, and Part II seems almost like a necessary past and future to place the events of the first film into context. I really enjoyed the scenes from the 1900s through the 1920s, and was fascinated by the 1950s scenes primarily to see how precisely furniture, costumes, and other accessories would be captured a mere 15 years removed from the 50s. For me that was a big part of the information I took from this film, to see a more accurate portrayal of the 1950s from people who actually lived through it who weren't training to portray it in a film in a glamorous or kitschy way 50-60 years later. I wasn't disappointed, I was actually quite pleased with how ...natural...the 1950s seemed in the context of Francis Ford Coppola's film, a decade he was old enough to remember but nostalgically. I was surprised at how much the furnishings in particular reminded me of my grandparents in the early 1980s and the homes of other relatives in their age range.

But enough about that...this movie is absolutely flawed because of the way it jumps around. Non-linear is fine, and Coppola somehow made it work in the beginning and at the end, but in the middle it felt muddy and incoherent to jump back and forth from 1920 to 1958.

Three hours and twenty minutes is also too long. I got really bored with the "man talk" and have no interest in seeing part 3, as by the end of part 2 Micheal has basically turned into the devil and is worse than his father ever was.