Post by ravi02 on Aug 14, 2018 7:05:06 GMT
My issues:
1.) Michael's character change - At the end of Part 2, he's an irredeemable lowlife who orders his own brother killed. In 3, he's suddenly this emotional older guy who cracks jokes at weddings, donates to charities and has his nephew solve his problems with rival mobsters diplomatically? I know people change in 20 years, but they should have kept some of Michael's darkness intact. Remember Pacino's portrayal of an aging criminal in Carlito's Way? That's how Michael should have been played here.
2.) No Tom Hagen - The estrangement of Michael and his adopted brother was one of the threads left hanging in the second film and without him there, the story feels incomplete. I know Duvall wasn't all that interested in making the film, but Coppola should have tried harder to bring him back.
3.) Lack of compelling supporting characters - The other films gave us a treasure trove of colorful support like Tessio, Clemenza, Luca Brasio, Tessio, Moe Greene, Willi Cicci, Hyman Roth, Frankie Pentangeli, Don Fanucci. Each character had their own unique personality and contributed to the plot in some way. Aside from maybe Andy Garcia's Vincent Mancini, who in Part 3 is memorable? Joe Mantegna has his moments as Joey Zaza, but we know he won't last long. I don't give a damn about the Italian dude with glasses, the mustached banker, the braying donkey guy and while I like Eli Wallach, he's just a hammy retread of Hyman Roth.
4.) Sofia Coppola - I hate to pick on her because it was foolish of her father to cast her, but man, is she terrible. She reads all her lines with zero emotion and no understanding of what's going on in the scene. Her entire romance with Vincent is made all the more unwatchable due to the lack of chemistry.
5.) Recycling scenes from the originals - We get another opening family gathering, return appearances from Johnny Fontaine, Enzo the Baker and Calo the bodyguard from the original, another shootout during a street fair, endless flashbacks and a finale where "family business" is taken care of while they're off enjoying stuff as a family (here it's an opera instead of the original's baptism).
The film has its moments like Michael's confession to the priest or when he remembers dancing with his first wife, but for the most part, the film is a huge disappointment.