If you've ever played Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic II this film represents a similar philosophy. The original is a great game, and contains many elements not typical of other platform games of the same era. There are 7 zones and a final boss at the end. The game is suitably easy to start off with, then gets harder as it goes.
Then, after having the original game be a giant success, the makers decided it would be a good idea to make a sequel. The game is essentially for people who have completed Sonic and want more. There are more levels, harder bosses and hey, while we're at it, let's chuck a new character in there! And so Tails was born. Nothing about the game is original, because it needs to be in keeping with the predecessor in order to gain approval.
Basically the Godfather II is like the Godfather one, but everything is bigger. The movie is longer, there is a higher death count, much more guns and less of a build up at the beginning. Michael Corleone's character, drunk with power, became even colder and basically ordered the execution of anyone that threatened him or generally made him unhappy.
The flashbacks to Vito Corleone's rise to power I found very interesting. It is typical in these types of movies for that type of character, one with a grim background, to take on such a powerful position. I guess a character that has had to make it on his own all his life would be better taking care of himself, eliminating enemies and any other threats. Plus there was the fun of being like: is that a young Robert De Niro? Nah...It couldn't be...wait, I think it is! no....is it?
The scene in the courtroom where Michael is making his defense speech is, in my opinion, quite shocking. He mentions, amongst other things, that he loves living in America and that he fought in a war. The judge responds saying that it was "very moving, especially the part about your love for this country". I mean Scottish people are patriotic but Americans LOVE their country. The fact that standing up and proclaiming your love for America would have any sway in a courtroom is insane. A lot of American pop culture is starting to make sense to me now. We've all heard it, its in the Simpsons, Friends, How I Met Your Mother (weird examples) but at some point or another, in a lot of movies and TV shows, there's that moment where someone's making a speech about how great the United States is, there's a fanfare playing in the background, and once they're finished, an audience full of people stand up and cheer. There's an American flag swaying in the background. We've all seen it. The friggin' Space Race! I never understood why a country would spend so much money just to copy what another country has already done. It didn't even seem like the Russians wanted to win, they were just going about normal scientific business, when the Americans decided to make it into a contest. It's like a massive round of "Anything you can do, I can do better".
Americans, we love you, but calm the heck down, drink some tea and stop eating so many hot dogs....Alright that last comment was unnecessary and the whole thing's a sweeping generalisation, but you get the point.
Wow this review did not go the way I expected it to. Perhaps I'll get back the Godfather II
Basically, its awesome. Perhaps a little more story would have kept me interested. I'm not really an "all action" kind of guy so the increased gun usage doesn't really appeal to me. I understand why its below the first movie on the list; I think the first definitely needs credit for getting the ball rolling, but I feel the second movie is better.
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