Not a single marionette in the whole movie

Last night I watched The Godfather Part 1 for the first time in my 29 years. Being a bit of a film buff and avoiding this classic for so long was no easy task. But I've never been all that interested in the Mafia-Action genre, although I do love Goodfellas. I felt slightly let down by The Godfather. What a controversial statement! But seriously, is it just me or was that narrative a little sloppy and loose? And not in the good way either, in the way that acts of vengence are carried out after heinous acts performed by other characters and it gets a bit confusing who's getting whacked for what.
The best part of watching the movie was getting to figure out all the pop-culutre references that I either only have understood before, or completely missed. The horse head in the bed was definitely a highlight. Along with the toll booth killing scene. A surprise was the line "I hope your first child is a masculine child." I had no idea Randall was quoting that, I just thought he was being a weirdo dick-bag.
I understand why the movie is a classic, the character arch of Michael is truly a masterpiece of storytelling, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That being said the pacing was a little strange as well. At times there seemed to be minute to minute action, and at other times it appeared that months at a time passed and the only thing to indicate this was different haircuts and healed wounds. It's not like I was expecting a little text overlay of "3 months" later or whatever, but maybe a piece expository dialogue? Oh, and I missed half of the dialogue, because I guess I downloaded a torrent that supposed I would be bi-lingual in both Italian and English.
A terrific film that anyone who loves classics will enjoy.