The Godfather Part III

Francis Ford Coppola didnt intend to make the Godfather films into a trilogy - instead there were supposed to be two parts and an epilogue. He wanted to name the epilogue The Death of Michael Corleone, but the producers didnt want that. The final result? The Godfather Part III (1990). It didnt meet the high expectations set by the first two Godfather films, which led it to become a target of angry and negative criticism. The most confusing difference to its predecessors is its more obvious focus on Michael instead of the entire family. The biggest offender for most of the fans was casting Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter, as Mary: her performance is rather terrible.

The film's content is fine as it is: it is a great character study of Michael. As an "epilogue", it doesn't need to be anything else. The ending, however, is a mess: after the great build-up, the ending is awfully forced and disappointing. And not to forget the very last scene which just ruins the rhythm of the entire film.

The film's form is nice although sometimes it is rather plain when compared to the first two films. However, the whole opera sequence at the end of the film was a masterpiece of editing and photography. It's a stunning achievement - not least as a sequence which builds enormous amounts of tension.

While Sofia Coppola's performance was god awful, the other "newcomers" were more or less awesome. Andy Garcia seemed irritating at first, but after a while I realised how brilliant his performance was. Joe Mantegna was also great as the smug Joey Zaza.

In overall, the film is a little unbalanced, but it has a few pros worth mentioning.

Score: 7 out of 10

The Godfather Part II

Even though I had considered The Godfather (1972) overrated back when I watched it, I always thought its sequel, The Godfather Part II (1974), deserved all the praise it received. I'll put my answer as briefly as possible: While the sequel is as cinematically sophisticated as the original, its subtlety wears it down a bit and makes it feel a bit unbalanced on an emotional level.

Score: 9 out of 10

PS: I know this review is awfully short and disappointing, but I struggled with writing the review for over 2 days so I figured I should do it as briefly as possible.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) is a sequel to his massively popular film, Ghost in the Shell (1995). The story continues sometime after the first film, and that's why I won't give a plot outline so that I can avoid spoilers. The film is set in a future world where cyborgs have become very common. The profound themes of the first film are yet again under analysis. This time, though, the characters ponder on them through ridiculous amount of quotes from Confucius to Milton. The quotes are so forced and distracting that they really bothered me. That is the film's major flaw - seriously. The film is visually very beautiful and stunning; it combines cell animation and CGI seamlessly. The form in general works very well, and I can't recall any flaw that is worth mentioning. I strongly recommend to watch the first film if you havent seen it yet.

Score: 8 out of 10