With the fate of our planet arguably hanging in the balance, An Inconvenient Truth may prove to be one of the most important and prescient documentaries of all time. As he jokingly refers to himself, "former President-elect" Al Gore felt an urgent personal calling to draw attention--as he had been doing throughout his political career--to the increasingly desperate crisis of global warming, and this riveting documentary is basically a filmed version (by respected TV director Davis Guggenheim) of the PowerPoint lecture that Gore has presented (by his own estimate, well over 1,000 times) to attentive audiences all over the world. Considering Gore's amiable, low-key approach to charts, graphs, statistics, and photographs that leave no room for doubt regarding the reality (not "theory") of global warming as Earth's ultimate environmental crisis, many viewers will be surprised by just how fascinating and convincing this no-frills film really is.

Seriously, No Case?

I bought this as a gift for my mother's movie collection. This movie is a must see, but it came in a little cardboard case! Not a plastic case, like all other movies come in. Now, I am as close to a "tree hugger" as they reasonably come, but this is even a little silly to me. My mom will just throw away/recycle the case it came in & go buy a case that will fit on her shelf. I was disappointed that it still cost $20 with no case.

Boring, partisan, and generally dumb

What is this documentary about? Is it about global warming? Is it about Al Gore? Is it about the 2000 presidential race? Or is it just about nothing in general?

I can't really answer that question, because it seems that 'An Inconvenient Truth' jumps from one of these to the other throughout Gore's exceedingly dry lecture. The bottom line is, this documentary is hypocritical, rude, misleading, and just plain boring.

Gore starts off with some bad humor, then waxes on about what a nice environmentally-conscious fellow he is... while looking down upon Earth from the window of a business jet. And not just a business jet, but one with barely anyone on it. Wow, what a way to start. He also makes veiled jabs at Bush and Republicans in general throughout the presentation, and especially at the start. Apparently, Mr. Gore hasn't figured out what everyone's been thinking about him for the last 8 years: you lost. Get over it.

He then goes on to show some graphs that depict a dramatic spike in temperatures. But wait- pause it there. Notice something interesting? Oh, the graph has no scale on it! If you're not a total nimrod and have at least taken grade school math, this should set off some serious warning bells.

From the way Gore speaks, and an occasional clip he shows (one Simpsons animation in particular) he clearly expects his audience to be uneducated and retarded. In fact, at one point near the start he says that the sun's energy getting trapped beneath the Earth's atmosphere is called global warming. Actually, Mr. Gore, that's called the Greenhouse Effect. But wait, we're not supposed to be talking to anyone that actually knows this, so carry on.

Gore also uses a great deal of anecdotal evidence to bolster his selling points, no matter that such doesn't actually prove anything. If it did, it'd be established scientific fact that aliens exist, kidnap people, perform experiments on them, and introduced the human race to Earth in the first place (in which case, sit back and relax- they'll fix global warming for us too). Just because everyone says, believes, or thinks something is true doesn't mean it's really truth. Even if a lot of scientists believe or say something is true doesn't mean it's true; and by the way, a lot of scientists disagree with what Gore has to say here. If you want to make something 'true,' you can come up with all sorts of evidence supporting it and simply ignore any evidence that contradicts it. This is well known, and it happens all the time.

The really bad part of this documentary, however, is the fact that it's simply not entertaining. I wouldn't mind all the irrelevant nonsense, hypocrisy, partisan garbage, and outright deception- regardless of its effect on my sensibilities and the insult to intelligent viewers- if the film was at least FUN to watch. I've sat through and enjoyed quite a few of Michael Moore's films, even ones where I found him directly insulting, because he's at least a good showman. But sitting here listening to Al Gore do a PowerPoint presentation is not fun. It's about as boring as watching paint dry, except that usually takes less time.

The bottom line is, I really am at a loss as to why this film is so critically and popularly acclaimed. It just doesn't make any sense to me... but then again, what does these days? The biggest proponents for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest emitters of such... people whine and gripe about how the US doesn't buy into the Kyoto Protocol, but they'd whine and gripe just as much (or, likely, more) if we did- once the economic side-effects smack them in the wallet. Personally, I do believe that global warming is a problem, but I don't see how scientists can possibly predict a disaster coming in the next 50 years as a result from it, when they can't even predict the weather in the next 50 hours. And I'm not convinced there's any way we can 'fix' it without resorting to painfully expensive strategies, which nobody is willing to do. 'An Inconvenient Truth' really doesn't do anything to make me feel that global warming is any more urgent a problem than I thought before seeing it, nor does it propose any likely solution. It looks like a bunch of propaganda and scare tactics, that play more on emotion than any real fact.

Do yourself a favor, and find some real entertainment instead.

A truth everyone should know

I wish everyone sees this Al Gore's fantastic presentation to realise the global calamity awaiting us if don't pay heed to his warnings. If I had the powers I would make this a compulsory viewing by all school children so that they become aware of what future is awaiting them and who is screwing it up.