Make no bones about it, we live in weird times. We're now feed to believe that scientific understanding is synonymous to a system of belief. At this moment, no one has caused any convictions to contradict their theories, but the main topics in the air in the scientific community right now are evolution and the fears of our failing ecosystem caused by the effect of global warming. I never thought that the laws of physics even cared about our environmental concerns that could effect our ecosystem forever. And as we speak, we are still debating if the melting of our icebergs is a sign that our ecosystem is in declining health or if it's a sign the Jesus is coming back with a vengeance. It comes to no surprise that that this movie had to include some anti-science religious fanatic to appease some appraisal to the Republican party's agenda. Thanks to this individual, the Republicans are obligated to believe, that in spite of all the toxins polluting the air, the debris in our rivers, the massive oil spills and the deforestation of our Earth is just fine for our environment if you have the power to believe.Of course the perpetual liberal agenda that is Hollywood will gladly milk in the celebrity endorsements to challenge this global concern. And who's better to conduct this with open heart mixed with narrow-minded integrity is non other than Hollywood's Golden Boy Leonardo DiCaprio. Like a sequel to Al Gore's "The Inconvenient Truth", DiCaprio continues where Gore left us and also serves as a producer as well. "The 11th Hour" tells an intelligent and insightful alarming state of the ecological mismanagement our planet has suffered from over the years. And it doesn't look like its going to get better any time soon.A cornucopia of professors, journalists, authors, scientists and politicians to discuss this matter of how it has an affect on us and what we should be concerned about. And the big names are quite impressive. Among the heavy-thinkers is the king of thinkers Dr. Stephen Hawking, and among the big-name politicians is former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev. But among the impressive speakers that caught my attention was the very knowledgeable and well-spoken former CIA director James Woolsey. These mainstream of experts tell us we don't have the strength to completely destroy the land that gave us life, but rather the ability to make life more complicated towards ourselves and our legacy to follow us when were dead. The Earth will continue to move forward whether its inhabited by humans or fleas.For that much-needed celebrity star-power DiCaprio narrates this documentary. Though that's not a bad thing because he has a great voice for narrating, his gravitas lacks in maturity compared to Morgan Freeman or George Clooney. His delivery of words seems way too giddy in all his earnest intentions, his youthful appearance makes him look like he's posing for a teen magazine. And that novice director Leila Connors-Petersen and Nadia Connors presented this film way too conventionally. There's just way too many talking heads with only brief fragments of ecological concerning footage. Sure it's giving us a fair warning, which may make you reevaluate your thinking, but fails to show you the bigger picture.The main question I have for this documentary is, who is their target audience? Granted it gives the general population as a whole a little something to think about. But in the end, it all comes down to the people already in that train of thought. This movie could have the potential to covert Bill O'Reilly to volunteer for Greenpeace. Instead he'll just find a way to conflict himself against the liberal biased Hollywood.The only people who might watch this film are those who may watched Al Gore's "The Inconvenient Truth". Which is quite sad because in that documentary, the lecture is gritty with impressive visuals and a flow that's easy to grasp at. "The 11th Hour" suffers from the fact that its executed to a more deeper-rooted philosophical vibe which makes it more encapsulating than it is obtainable. Which is sad because there's a lot to talk about in "The 11th Hour".After all the doom gloom that's killing our planet, it does shed a light of optimism and the solutions they have for us are both simple and practical. And it's nice that were not getting lectured by radical hippies telling us we all need to live in huts and grow more trees and eat the foods we grow. Instead the more intellectuals are just telling us we don't need to change our lifestyles, but rather depend on our modern technology to generate more fuel-economy cars and recyclable clothing, frugal wind-power and ecological friendly households.Even though "The 11th Hour" is very strong in subject matter and good on intention, the presentation could've been more better. And though I commend Leo for a job well done in narration, we really didn't need a Hollywood star tells us our wrong-doings. We're capable of figuring it our ourselves without the star power.

Leonardo DiCaprio narrates a documentary about the human destruction of the global environment. It looks at the entire history of human exploitation of the world's resources, its devastating effects and possible solutions. It concentrates on global warming with a large scattering of every scary environmental fears.There are way too many talking heads. Some faces are recognizable but most of them are unknown environmental scientists or writers. The scope of the movie is so vast that it becomes a laundry list of everything. For environmentalists, this is preaching to the choir. For opponents, this is a slick propaganda throwing everything into the stew presented by Hollywood. For those in between, it doesn't really convince but it summarizes. This is a repeat of 'An Inconvenient Truth' and then piles on everything else. There is just more stuff. I don't see this as anything new or convincing anybody not already convinced. There are so many issues being touched on that I think most independent viewers would throw up their hands and give up long before the end.

THE 11TH HOUR is a cautionary and doomsday documentary with a powerful line-up of intelligent men and women speaking to the destruction we as humans are doing to our planet Earth. Hosted by film star Leonardo DiCaprio (THE DEPARTED) and with a stunning array of cross-cultural people backing up claims surrounding the terrible price of the human footprint on the globe (from Stephen Hawking to Michel Gorbachev and David Suzuki), the stories of woe and gloom will most likely make your hair stand on end.Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this documentary, let me say that I believe in human causes for global warming. And that we have polluted — and continue to pollute — this pale blue dot that we call home. Governmental apathy and greed have played a huge role within this problem, but so has the greed of your average Joe with a 401k (ever look at where your money is invested? Which stocks? Is Chevron or Mobil or Shell in there?).The 11th Hour lays out a great set of problems facing us as a planet, not as individual nations. But what it failed horribly on is showing us those that don't believe what is being said by the ecological community. Yes, they probably are backed by Big Oil. Yes, they probably aren't looking at the scientific data and only the emotions behind them. But I still would've liked to have seen SOMEONE (anyone) with a dissenting opinion so that the documentary had a better balance to it. I've complained about this before, and I don't think it is beneficial to those with a genuine concern for the planet to simply eliminate opposition. I say take them on! So what if they have more money than you. So what if they can bend the ear of every Senator and Congressman in Washington. Let's see their faces and let us know who they are. Those DVD watchers with even half an intellect will be able to sort through the details and understand what is being done and by whom. Don't fear the opposition. Use them to your advantage. Show how weak their arguments are and put them into the debate.That being said, the study of Earth's problems (from globalization to the destruction of species and habitat) is a hoary one. The advancing issues aren't going to go away as we use more fossil fuels, pump out more babies (no population controls), and desire more "things" that we feel will make us somehow better than the Joneses ...until nothing of humanity remains.

I went into The 11th Hour expecting a straightforward, didactic documentary summarizing the current threats from global warming. If not for a momentary interest on the subject, I would have probably passed it up altogether. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was extremely nuanced, being an insightful and scientific investigation on mankind's role in global warming.Rather than spurting out random facts and events (like most documentaries), The 11th Hour uses a wide range of viewpoints to build a conceptual foundation that explains the general scientific impression of global warming. Some of the ideas may end up being wrong, but all of them are at least plausible. The different speakers include Paul Hawken, Wangari Maathai, Mikhail Gorbachev, and (my favorite) Stephen Hawking. There are many different ideas communicated, but they are all based on the same underlying principle. The structure of the documentary is very dialog heavy, which can feel overwhelming at times but is guaranteed to bring forth new knowledge to viewers.The main ideas are nothing new for most people educated on environmental news, but the speakers submit some profound new ways of looking at them. A common theme was relating Earth's existence to the human civilization's existence. If we continue to progress global warming, the planet might be able to heal itself eventually, but only once humans are gone. One thing I found especially interesting was the consideration of the economic value of nature, which ended up being roughly two times greater than the world's industrial wealth.My only significant complaint is that the film is often rough in style, organization, and editing. The images sometimes feel out of place or even distracting from the message. Occasionally, the images rapidly jump between completely different environments, which can be hard to process. To be sure, most of the cinematography was excellent, but it just wasn't put together in the best way. Overall, it could have been more focused.The 11th Hour is an insightful and inspiring documentary on one of the most important topics to date. It provides a balanced and comprehensive conceptual overview on the human role in global warming, but also expects viewers to take this knowledge out of the theater and implement it into their own lives. It is extremely educational experience.