The Second Coming
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Movie Reviews of The Second Coming
Movie Review: acting good, plot falls apart
Summary: 3 Stars
I found this to be first an interesting idea for a plot. Jesus Christ comes again as Steve Baxter. Perhaps the most interesting idea was the question on how to understand Steve as 'Son of God'. As in most contempary film, they emphasize his humanity.
It has a interesting but poor plot. In addition, it was over symplistic and disengenious to human experience.
However it did engage me, perhaps because I thought much of the story and the characterization of God/Steve Baxter had high potential, which I hoped at some point would be realized.
As far as being great for discussion: I am not buying that ticket!!
The primary question being, 'Is God the problem?'
Best Line 'Evil is a lazy thing.' Johhny
Movie Review: preachy - but not in the way you'd imagine
Summary: 2 Stars
I checked this out because I wanted to take a look at what the new Doctor Who people have been doing in the recent past. The Second Coming isn't quite as cosmic, but it certainly engages us in some comparable flights of fancy. Steve Baxter (Christopher Eccleston) has an epiphany one night when he's out on the town with some mates. He reckons he's become the Son of God and he proceeds to turn night into day at Maine Road football ground in order to demonstrate his divinely-chosen status (a bit like David Icke, except with powers). His immediate friends take their time to come to terms with this and despite becoming the `new disciples' some of them - notably Judith his girlfriend (Lesley Sharp) - remain sceptical. Through the media he tells the world that they must come up with a `Third Testament'. It later transpires that if they do not, the end of the world will soon follow.
What are this messiah's credentials? Well, he spends forty days in the wilderness which is Saddleworth Moor and he has no earthly father - it turns out that his dad is infertile and couldn't have fathered him. This tickled me. Did writer Russell T. Davis pass his GCSE in Religious Studies, do we think? I couldn't really work out whether the religious symbolism was unconsciously corny and naïve or whether it aimed at giving us a laugh. I'd like to think the latter. Steve, curiously, isn't what we might describe as spiritual - certainly not religious. He swears all the time, boozes and although not quite loutish, is somewhat laddish. He's a laddish messiah. His disciples swear at him and he insults them back. (Message to southerners - we in the north are not all like this, despite the plethora of dramas which suggest otherwise: Preston Front, Our Friends in the North, etc. Writers do seem to have this desire to patronise us thus.)
What's noticeable about the founders of the major world religions is that they managed to espouse some degree of religious wisdom. Steve, who just witters nonsensically to the crowds, seems to lack this facility. Is he meant to be devoid of wisdom? Are we asking too much of Russell T. Davis to place some in his mouth? Could he have done so had he wished? Presumably our writer would need to possess some himself! (Jury's out.) It turns out that the party piece belongs to the sceptical girlfriend who clearly becomes the mouthpiece for the programme's message.
So what happens? Despite almost two hours of waiting for Judgement Day, with little action or plot development we eventually come to learn that our messiah is something of a damp squib. He ends up at the girlfriend's home where she feeds him a dish of spaghetti a la rat poison which he takes willingly but not before we discover that he is really just a sort of encapsulation or epitome of human religiosity. Enlightened humanity - Judith - finally comes to realise that she can and must live without him and she spits him out. They argue for a while before atheism wins out and Steve chomps down the poisoned pasta (after the two hours I found myself saying `bon appetit'). So we get the sermon, although it's a secular one which declares the futility of religious belief. But this messiah seemed to me to be almost devoid of any meaningful religious ideas anyway. You can't debunk what doesn't exist. Steve can't be a foil for atheism if he IS a kind of atheism. I suppose that we do end up questioning Russell T Davis's understanding of spirituality, not to say he should necessarily adhere to religion or spirituality, but perhaps to understand it to come degree. And yes, there is a naivety and a corniness which underpins all this third-form philosophy, typical of so many young people working within the arts.
It's a pity that the message of the piece couldn't have been delivered within the actual context of the drama itself. What we have is a two hour TV play followed by a secular sermon, subtext puked out and all. We do have an epilogue, however, where our new-found heroine is hilariously transfigured at the supermarket. I do recommend The Second Coming for amusement, but for enlightenment you'd better have something else to hand.
Movie Review: I, for one, wish he'd never come back at all...
Summary: 2 Stars
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
As I don't have a TV, and had never heard of this mini-series, I didn't know what to expect from The Second Coming and hired it purely on the strength of its plot synopsis, which sounded interesting.
Dear God! (Every pun intended.) If someone told me that this had been written by a class of thirteen year-olds who had been given the project of turning the second coming into a school play I wouldn't have been surprised.
Why, oh why, did they decide to portray Jesus mark II as what amounted to an idiot savant? Is there anything in any of the gospels to suggest this? Okay, an ordinary bloke, but a Great Northern Moron. I don't think so.
Apparently all Jesus did to impress people was his miracles, because according to this take his preaching sure as h*ll never impressed anyone. Certainly without the night into day stunt Mr Jesus Eccleston would have been floundering without a canoe, a paddle, or any kind of following at all.
And the odd little gay polemics put in willy-nilly, without rhyme or reason. Other than, of course, Russell waving to his QAF fan base. Jesus turns up in the pub to recruit 'disciples' (more gormless Northern losers and, of course, the gay writer's standby - the harpy woman, nag, nag, nagging away). Gay rights are rammed down his throat to no real purpose, almost like Russell thought he 'owed it to the lads' to put Jesus on the spot.
I can't really see the real Jesus coming out with "Well, I've nothing against it personally, mate." Only someone truly middle class and woolly could imagine Jesus to be quite this wet.
And don't start me on the ending. 'Please come in and eat rat poison because the only way we can be truly free is if God dies'.
It was like an Eddie Izzard sketch of God as Bill Gates. "Hello, I'm Bill Gates, and now you've pointed out to me that my global domination is cramping your style I'm going to give it all to you, my customers." And eat the rat poison, of course.
I'm often mystified by the ratings on Amazon, but the high rating on this one takes the biscuit.
Never mind Jesus for the new millennium - this is Jesus for brainless MTV lads.
God help us all indeed.
Movie Review: Left nothing but fog in my brain and a hole in my wallet
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a great fan of apocolyptic and futuristic drama -- everything from 1984, to Twilight Zone, to Mad Max -- and I know when the message is profound and communicated effectively, and when it's not. In this instance, a couple of special effects scenes that convince the world the second messiah has come, combined with a bit of dialogue about mankind's need to clean up our act lest the end come, adds up to nothing memorable except frustration and disappointed expectations. Those behind this item may have had something to say, but it got lost along the way and left only a highly idiosyncratic story line and dialogue which is likely better understood by the writer than by anyone else. I know many different kinds of critical thinking people, but can think of few of them who wouldn't be well advised to avoid this one.