I watched the first two films last weekend for the first time since January 2006. I wrote these thoughts on the first one:

I think the problem with the first Godfather is its crude source material. It's better than the novel in every way possible, but I find it overwhelmingly episodic and verbose. The acting and music are tremendous, but its rhythm is very clunky and the narrative is unrewarding.

A few moments are great: Michael's pivotal moment in the hospital when he says, "I'm with you now, Pop"; his subsequent killing of Sollozzo and McClusky is a great set-piece in itself; the baptism scene is genius; Brando drives the film whenever he's onscreen.

But its sidesteps, such as the whole thunderbolt episode in Sicily, dampen the drama. The whole Jack Woltz episode, immediately after the (lengthy) wedding sequence crawls along with no real purpose or energy.

And the whole dramatic arc of the film is supposed to rest on Michael's unexpected spiral into the Family business. But Coppola cheats: whereas the first thirty minutes of the film comprise one single wedding, the final third of the film jumps and leaps in time that the characterisation is implausible. Pacino's particularly excellent as the outcast war vet in the opening scenes, and he's convincing too as the cold Don in the final moments, but there's no in between.

We're supposed to accept his ruthlessness stems from Apollonia's death in Sicily, but there's no spiral there. All of a sudden he's emerging from a car and saying to Kay, "I've been back a year. Longer than that, I think." I was as bewildered and frustrated by this as Kay was (Keaton's fantastic, by the way).

It has a loaded air to it, from the opening slow track back from Bonasera to Clemenza kissing Michael's cheek at the end. "OMG EPIC!" might be overly facetious and reductive on my part, but it's a feeling I haven't yet shirked.

The second film's much better. I'm watching the third soon.