This movie got a severe reaming from fans of the original which is what made me avoid it for years. Then I realized I wasn't really a fan of the original so what's the risk.

It took me a while to get into this. To be fair to the haters, the biggest criticism--that the students' behavior wasn't very believable, or outright silly--is the biggest drain on the film's first half. But in the 2nd half I realized that's exactly what the story needed: a bunch of erratic, volatile and outright stupid antagonists to mirror the foolishness of humankind that a 14k year old man would've experienced.

It comes to a fantastic climax when the young, disillusioned and mentally unbalanced religious kid totally loses his mind in the final act. This is very much a story about the perils of religion, the way simple wisdom is perverted into violence through fanaticism. We know historically what happened to Jesus. The first movie gave us an intellectual analysis. Here in the 2nd movie we see a visceral illustration.

Back to what I said about using young, foolish and ridiculous antagonists... I believe the point of John Oldman's character is to show how much tolerance he has acquired over 14,000 years of witnessing idiots. That's the revolutionary thought that MFE and MFEH present. Whereas you or I might get sick of it and push the nuke button, John Oldman doesn't lose hope. That's why, despite it all, he continues to be a college professor, teaching even the most rebellious students with patience and caring. When the religious kid goes full psycho on John, notice how level-headed and cool John remains throughout the tense confrontation. This is the payoff that the 1st movie was begging for.

The bottom line: how would a 14,000 year old man perceive humans? As children. That's why I think the movie was very smart to show that after 14k years the biggest threat wouldn't be some organized crime syndicate or a slick government agency, but it would be a bunch of foolish kids who don't know what they're doing.