First of all, The 11th Hour is a documentary and not an asteroid action film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Stephen Hawking. DiCaprio is open about his political views and is championing the cause together with Al Gore. This is probably why The 11th Hour was lambasted as ‘liberal propaganda’ by many Americans. Watching The 11th Hour from a non-American point-of-view doesn’t have this effect. Some of the world’s leading authorities and most brilliant minds gather together to voice their concerns on the earth and environmental affairs.

The intellectual collective share their perspective on consumerism, pollution, population and natural resources. They echo the message shared by Al Gore that humankind should be on full alert. This documentary does take an angle on environmental affairs, but its political agenda is secondary and inconsequential in the big picture. The 11th Hour is about raising awareness and is persuasive in convincing people that there is a problem, and that we’ve got to fill our pixel on the world’s canvas.

DiCaprio narrates The 11th Hour and the documentary forms a series of interconnected talking heads. The film has been edited down so that each interview doesn’t absorb too much screentime. Visuals of nature and relevant archive footage separate the head snippets and DiCaprio narrates at intervals. The 11th Hour reminds us that we are part of Nature and that our actions are only harming our longevity and existence as a species. The population continues to multiply sporadically as greed and user-orientated lifestyles diminish our resources.

The world is represented by intellectuals from various walks of life and ranges from professors to presidents. Each aspect of earth’s crisis is given some focus and one is made aware of green issues without being preached at. This is a documentary that carries the torch from Al Gore, but provides a more comprehensive overview of our status quo. The talking heads give their advice and support the cause in numbers. This is an eye-opening documentary that addresses the big environmental problems and calls on individuals to start making a change in their own lives.

The bottom line: Informative.