It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I very much agree with the comments made by Piotr and dennis888 above. Not nearly as detailed or introspective as the first part, and far too obsequious.It's funny, the same director made the first part of Pope John Paul II's biography and it was very good. Now this second part seems as if it was made only to get over with it once and for all. There is no emotion in the film-making (which was evident in the first part) no humanity in the characterization of Karol Woytila, he seems like a sanctified caricature of himself, there are no doubts, no dwelling, no uncertainties. Also the world events which he helped to shape are treated very superficially, almost as if they reluctantly had to be somehow included. A shame really, I was expecting something much better.

I know, I know, many Poles and many Catholics will tear me to shreds, but come on, this sequel suffers almost all the bad moments you can ever imagine. It is too slow, too long, too sweet and almost saccharine in its delivery. The events at the same time are very jumbled and often seem to be utterly out of connection. What is worse, is the xtremely poor acting - the roles played by several people are too exaggerated, too naive and too much all over the place. Parts for Mother Teresa and some Communist workers are among the most unbearably bad examples of that The film suffers of too much worship ans veneration, too much of solemnity and too much seriousness. The Pope seems to be a frozen marble statue and not a vivid Karol of the first movie. The whole work is very sweet and too much pizzas and sugar - not realistic and far too overplayed. This is a fair try but it failed

it is a very good movie and a moving one, but I think it is a very small movie for such a big pope. It would be interesting if in the DVD features, we could find some statistics about the quantity of travels, the quantity of people he met, the amount of speeches he gave, the influence he had on different churches, catholic and non catholic, etc.The movie stays short in the trips he made to America, Mexico, Chile and many other countries for specific reasons and church problems that were taking place in the catholic church. Hoe he renovated the moral sense and thoughts of many priests, and theologians, how he insisted in the universal call to holiness, his love for the blessed sacrament, the renovation of the religious life, the problems with the Society of Jesus, some bishops and catholic doctrine professors. The way he used to reunite philosophers, scientists, from around the whole world to discuss many items every year.I know it would be impossible to reunite 26 years in a 2 hour movie, but it is a very good try, to start with.

I am an apostate Catholic, an agnostic and a cynic. Yet I was moved strongly by this excellent film which, if anything, is better than the first. Mind you, the bad guys are a little too bad. Heck, even assassins shave sometimes. And not all Soviet officials were quite as dour as the Russian heavies here. And surely Pope Paul John must have had some character flaws, however tiny. But no matter. The film captures the goodness of the man without being either preachy or idealistic. This is a well done historical epic that I trust will be trotted out every ten or fifteen years. It definitely will stand the test of time. And, coincidentally, kudos to CBC for showing it first in North America.