While many of the talented ensemble would reprise their roles in The Godfather Part II, not every character from the first film lived long enough to see the second, depriving the sequel of some big-hitters. The entire trilogy is very much Michael's story, but even the slightest utterance of the word 'Godfather' has, for the past four decades, conjured images of only one man - Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone. The most telling advantage The Godfather has over its sequel is a timeless and iconic cast. Certainly, there are many areas upon which The Godfather Part II improves upon the first, but if Luca Brasi held a gun to a critic's head and assured him that either a choice between The Godfather and The Godfather Part IIor his brains would be on his laptop screen, here's why they might opt for the former.

In order to avoid differentiating between them, many consider the two films as one long work of blood-soaked art.

Both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are among the best examples of filmmaking and storytelling in history. It's not hard to see why that opinion is so prevalent. Related: Why The Godfather Part III Took So Long To Make Although The Godfather Part II was indeed motivated by the financial and critical success of the original, and Godfather author Mario Puzo didn't have a second novel to draw from, Coppola enjoyed more creative freedom on his second venture with the Corleone family, and many claim that the second film is actually superior to Don Corleone's legendary 1972 debut.

Toy Story and Back To The Future are regularly touted as franchises that successfully delivered worthy sequels, but The Godfather Part II is arguably the chief example of a big screen continuation done right. More often than not, movie follow-ups fail to live up to their predecessors, and the list of disappointing sequels is far, far longer than those that genuinely enhance and expand upon what came before. 'Sequel' can be a dirty word among film fans. The 1974 sequel would go on to explore both the past and present, chronicling both men at different points in their respective mafia careers. What was in the Pulp Fiction briefcase? How many explosions can Michael Bay cram into two hours? And which is better out of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II? Released in 1972, the original movie charted the fall of Don Vito Corleone and the rise of his son Michael. The Godfather Part II is one of the best movie sequels ever made, but does Francis Ford Coppola's original The Godfather have the edge? The world of cinema is full of impossible questions.

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