I own a Blu-ray of The Godfather and I have watched The Godfather: Part II several times but it wasn’t until last week that I finally sat down and over several installments, the same process I am employing for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, that I watched The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

1972’s The Godfather is a classic of cinema, a triumph of filmmaking in the face of overwhelming adversity with lasting cultural impact as the film’s 50th anniversary approaches. The sequel deepened our understanding of the Corleone family, its history, and the ruthlessness required to sit atop a vast criminal empire as it corrupts the culture around it and the people inside it.

The Godfather Coda in comparison is a film that feels small. Cleverly staged mass assassinations of crime family bosses are far from new within this franchise and fail invoke much in the way of emotion or stakes. The plot involving Michael Corleone’s quest to absolve his murderous sins by going legitimate through corrupt deals with equally corrupt Roman Catholic officials seems perfunctory and with any real character weight. Familial conflicts, Michael’s son wanting a career in the arts, his illegitimate nephew affair with Michael’s daughter, and his strained relationship with his separated wife Kay, possess the requisite story beats but are executed in an unimaginative manner that any Lifetime movie would exceed. While lengthy in running time the film sprints to its conclusion cramming the death of a pope, the election of a new one and that pope’s assassination all into the story’s final act. Characters act in a manner more suited to movies that any reflection of reality perhaps best example by the assassins sent to kill Michael’s nephew who take the nephew’s current sexual partner hostage for no reason other than to present a ‘more dramatic’ scene when ruthless killers would have simply murdered her silently and then proceeded with their plan. This is mast worse by the fact that the character served no story purpose after that scene only heightening the contradiction of the scene.

Sofia Coppola has earned rave praise for her skills as a filmmaker in her own right. I have seen Lost in Translation it is unquestionable that she has learned much from her father and is a very talented director. As an actress she leaves much to be desired. She had no chemistry with her romantic lead and presented no interior life from her character Mary Corleone. Her character sits at the story’s emotional center exerting a gravity that bends the fates of everyone around her and this casting seriously damaged the film.

For me The Godfather Saga ends with Part II.