Watch Al Gore give a slide show? You must be joking.

I went to high school in the late 90s, and remember being required to make a PowerPoint presentation for history class. PowerPoint can be downright dreadful. If it's a shame every student must endure 5,843 boring lectures during an academic career, then what is it to condition students into creating boring lectures of their very own? And not just create, but craft, slowly, tediously, using the dullest possible instrument, in order to transform beautiful, intricate subjects into lifeless monotony?

I say, somewhat terrifying. And so when I heard the movie poster for An Inconvenient Truth sported the tag-line "By far the most terrifying thing you will ever see", naturally it meant that this "thing" – an appropriate label for the scourge that is PowerPoint – must be terrifying all right: terrifyingly bad.

Al Gore, I must confess, had never struck me as a stirrer of passion and excitement. He yielded the 2000 presidency to the other guy, who despite his shortcomings (which lately seem to sprout like insurgents in a country surprisingly resistant to shock and awe) seemed like he'd be more fun to hang out with and throw back a couple. Gore's public image, ever since then, has been maybe a bit too square to be hip.

With these thoughts, I watched the movie.

It was riveting, and intense. The animated graphs were gorgeous, often majestic in their implications. There were moments my heart sank like a stone. Other times, wry wit emerged amid Al Gore's genuine warmth and engaging concern, and I joined the audience's elated sighs of gratified relief. After the credits came resounding applause. An Inconvenient Truth is mostly a slide show narrated by Gore. It is also, refreshingly, a wild ride. Here it is from critics:

"It's as a piece of entertainment that the movie scores its most surprising victory, taking the audience on a dizzying emotional and intellectual journey."
Brett Buckalew, filmstew.com

"This stunning documentary about global warming is a well-reasoned, clearly-proven, intelligent, cogent, irresistible torrent of scientific data, in a curiously warm, engaging, often funny presentation."
Janos Gereben, Entertainment Insiders

"What could have been mired in political rhetoric or techno-speak is instead illuminating, fascinating and sometimes frightening."
Claudia Puig, USA Today

"A powerful film that educates as it engages."
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Like an inventive and engrossing lecture by your favorite eighth-grade science teacher, making it an engaging movie, whatever your politics."
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"An Inconvenient Truth is entertaining and for the last reason you'd expect: Al Gore is good company."
Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press

"Al Gore delivers his thousandth lecture on the subject as though it were his first – he's fresh and energetic, warm and friendly."
Harvey S. Karten, Arizona Reporter

"Matter of fact, it's surprisingly entertaining, if ultimately shocking."
Tom Long, Detroit News

"The clarity and simplicity of the presentation is remarkable. Gore is a likable, confident, humorous speaker."
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

"It's a mind-boggling disaster epic that draws its special power from the fact that we are both the villains and victims of the story."
William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Gore has brought all the scattered news stories together in one briskly narrated, handsomely illustrated place, and the power of his points is striking. Sobering. Ultimately alarming."
Richard Schickel, Time Magazine

"Gore's multimedia presentation is like a rock concert: ever-changing visuals and on-stage mini-shticks that draw the audience into a mountain of scientific data, anecdotes that connect the dots and make the larger picture clear..."
Les Wright, culturevulture.net

"The most compelling disaster movie of the summer."
Scott Von Doviak, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

It is – by far – the most extraordinary lecture I have ever seen anyone give about anything.
Lawrence Lessig

I agree. I've never seen anything like this film: it inspired me to create sharethetruth.

See An Inconvenient Truth. For free.