The Second Coming (2003)

A lot of fun.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The first must-see film of the year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I went into this movie hoping for an imaginative twist on the Second Coming. Boy, was I ever wrong. BBC are dullards at pacing a movie, total idiots at creating suspense, fools at building intensity. And this movie is no exception to the rule of how much BBC sucks.Ugh, the pacing and time-wasting laborious dialogue was just painful to sit through. The first 30 minutes felt like 2 hours. I kept looking down at my watch wondering when the pointless, monotonous drivel would end. They wasted a perfectly good actor in the lead role, because the material is so lazy, and sloppily, written. Everything that happens is just to kill time.Out of 155 minutes, only 15 minutes are interesting (the controversial ending). What a shame. Reading the plot summary is more interesting than watching the movie. The preaching, the "am I God" endless blah blah blah-ing, the dumb as doornails boring miracles... UGH.DO NOT WATCH THIS CRAP.

=== spoilers!!I actually did not like this movie. Besides being a miniseries and feeling very long, it presented the son of God like a stupid bloke from Manchester who barely knows what he is doing, unless a divine "download" comes. He performs a few miracles for no real reason, then he does what his girlfriend thought.I am not religious and actually the idea of a world without religion (however weird that sounds for humans) seems a very good idea. But if God did exist and did come on Earth, I would like him to stay. I mean, what the hell (pun intended), at least he can stay for a few laughs and a beer then go home and leave us alone. God dying (or ceasing to exist or whatever) makes no sense once you know he is there.I also did not like the choice of actors. Christopher Eccleston is a good actor and I enjoy his movies, but he had no "godly" charisma in this film. And the girlfriend... could have picked a decent looking girl. The TV feel also took the rest of the edge off.So, if you are in the mood for a Manchester based son of god TV movie with a nietzschean ending, watch this film. As a side note: "God is dead" is found in 126000 pages on google. "God lives" is in 143000. So I guess that settles it :))

I rented the dvd (appropriately enough) over the Easter weekend and it made for a very interesting diversion from the usual sappy, soppy, silly "resurrection" of religious movies we get bombarded with at this time of year. The acting was very good and the premise even better. Episode one was excellent and I wondered how the director was going to bring this to a resolution in episode two. Well, I loved the ending but I am, like other viewers, foxed as to how it came about. The peculiar logic of the film was compromised by a sudden revelation I'm not convinced the character would have(or could have) had. Nevertheless, I recommend this to anyone who has had their fill of the Mel Gibson/right wing/heaven- forbid-we-have-an-original-thought treatments of spiritual subjects.

I have to say that I found this TV drama to be enormously good - such an original, inventive screenplay. I began watching with my finger poised about the channel-change button, half expecting something very conventional - the jesus wannabe is a looney (but there there is some (un)subtle suggestion toward the end that he might be a little more than that) - or or a final sequence in which jesus karate-chops demons and departs, granting us another two thousand years, but pleading that we try harder at being good. Instead something entirely unexpected - and challenging - is served up. So good to see that some people who write TV screenplays are not only thinking, but want to make us think too. It's also marvellously well acted.