Whereas the first film centered (mostly) around a college student that had to prove that God exists in order to avoid failing his philosophy class, this film centers around a high school teacher named Grace (Melissa Joan Hart) who answers her student's question about Jesus with a quote from Scripture and an elaboration that answers the student's question. Grace gets in trouble when the school board finds out, and when she refuses to apologize for her statements, she is sued by the student's parents.
One of the good things about this film is that the film stays focused on Grace's storyline for the majority of the movie, whereas in the first film there were so many storylines that were vying for attention that it made it feel like most of them should have been their own movies. In fact, the only other storylines (with one exception) in God's Not Dead 2 besides Grace's storyline are continuations of some of the storylines from the first film. These storylines will initially feel totally unnecessary to viewers who have not seen the first film, but (unlike the storylines of the first film) they all end up finding a meaningful connection to Grace's storyline. A non-spoiler example of this is that Pastor Dave's (David A.R. White) storyline from the first film continues as he is placed on the jury for Grace's case, and his presence ends up increasing the tension of the second half of the film.
Speaking of tension, a noticeable improvement from the first film was the actual presence of actual tension. The first film suffered from having no real stakes (at least, none that we really cared about). This film has major stakes, and we actually care this time around because (unlike the first film) we actually care about the characters and want to see them succeed. The fact that we care about the characters this time is also an improvement from the first film because the first film seemed to expect the audience to automatically care about the character simply by virtue of the characters' Christianity. The characters are well-rounded this time around and are also a lot more relatable. Also, unlike the first film, atheists are not depicted as always being downright mean people who are hostile Christianity and Christians. While most of the atheists in this film fit that Christian film stereotype, Grace's lawyer (Jesse Metcalfe) is an atheist who is depicted as being a very nice person - even to Christians. I think this is also an improvement over Christian films in general because not all atheists are mean, but Christain filmmakers tend to make all non-believers who don't come to Christ at some point in the film into these kinds of characters. It isn't very loving toward our unbelieving neighbors (even if it is true of some of them), and it is nice to see a Christian film making a step in the right direction in this respect.
There are only three things about this movie that I didn't like. The first is that the first few minutes are a little on the confusing side when one of the new characters is being set up. In the film's defense, these confusing elements make sense by the end of the film due to added information that we didn't have at the beginning, but it would have been nice if the screenwriters had given us at least some of this information at the beginning. Basically, the beginning will be a little confusing on the first viewing, but will make total sense on subsequent viewings. Second, it isn't very clear how long it's been since the events of the first film. This won't bother viewers who haven't seen the first one, but it will probably bother viewers who have seen the first one and who (like me) like to know what the story's timeline is. The final issue is a totally unnecessary storyline in which the pastors in the area are being required to hand over their sermons from the past three months to the government for analysis. This is explicitly a response to a similar law that was passed in Houston, Texas last fall (no seriously, there is actually a line of dialogue that pretty much admits that this storyline is here because of the Houston law). Given when this law was passed relative to the film's release, I'm pretty sure this storyline was added during (or even after) production. The fact that it was so obviously shoehorned into the film and the fact that only three scenes are dedicated to it (one of which is a post credits scene), this storyline feels totally unnecessary and really belongs as the first act of another film (which is what I think the storyline was also probably meant to set up). So, great news folks! We'll probably be getting a third God's Not Dead movie! The only reason that concerns me is that if this storyline is meant to set up a third film, this third film will probably feel too similar to God's Not Dead 2.
Anyway, despite these three issues I have with this movie, this film is a major improvement over the first one and is definitely worthwhile viewing. It won't be remembered as the best Christian film ever made, but it was a well-told story with great characters. If you saw the first one and liked it, go see this one because you will like this one even more. If you saw the first one and didn't like it, go see this one because I think you will like this one better. If you didn't see the first one, go see this one anyway because it's still something you can enjoy (oh, and don't waste your time watching the first one before you go see this one - it's not worth it).
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