I cannot decide between one and two, they are both superb. When I feel like I lean toward two, I think about one, and like one more. It's tough. So I'll list what I like about the three:

1) Beginning, story developes from the very beginning, Brando's acting is excellent. From the war in New York, to the love scenes in Sicily, to the baptism sequence, this movie is very well put together.

2) I love the business between Michael and Hyman Roth, especially how they could add history to go along with it (although they do that throughout the entire trilogy), in referring to the Cuban Revolution. I also enjoyed the rise of Vito Corleone very much. The fact that Coppola and Co. made Michael and Vito's story parallel to one another is icing on the cake. The very last scene is classic.

3) Though it gets a bad rap, and has its flaws, I do not consider it a bad film, not even a mediocre film. When it comes to most trilogies, the third one usually sucks. In this case, GFIII had to compete with two great films, one being even a best picture. It still carried my interest as a viewer with the story of Michael's business with Immobiliare and its reflection the modern aspect of the mafia. I consider Sofia Coppola the Jar Jar Binks of GFIII (I stole that line, so lay off). If the original plan of casting Winona Ryder would have privaled, I believe this film would not have gotten such a bad rap. (George Hamilton, too).