Al Gore Saves the universe.(Albert Gore Jr.)('An Inconvenient Truth')

Al Gore certainly looks like a man who is running for President in An Inconvenient Truth, a shamelessly propagandistic documentary that has all the artistry and subtlety of a campaign ad.

Even those who agree with Gore's environmental philosophy, which the picture lays out in exhausting detail, would have to admit that An Inconvenient Truth fails in many of the same ways Gore failed as a Presidential candidate. The picture is tedious, impersonal, dare I say stiff. Staunch environmentalists--or even those of us who are looking for engaging, informative dialogue on the global-warming debate--should be dismayed that Gore's message is being conveyed via so dull and didactic a presentation.

Gore can't entirely be blamed for failing to turn into a live wire--at 58, the man is what he is. So the fault mainly lies with the filmmakers. Director Davis Guggenheim, who has mostly worked on television series such as "24" and "ER," follows Gore as the former Vice President goes on a world tour with his multimedia presentation on global warming. The lecture, which Gore calls "the slide show," takes up the majority of the movie's running time, lightened only by occasional portraiture segments that fail to reveal much about the man at the film's center.

To be fair, Gore is more invigorated here than he ever seemed to be on the campaign trail. Yet Guggenheim presses too hard to present a "loose" Gore, making sure to include the self-deprecating one-liner he uses to open his presentation: "I used to be the next President of the United States." Watching Gore crack a joke is like watching your average football player swing a golf club. Sure, he can do it, but it's not an especially pretty sight.

If the movie were simply boring, An Inconvenient Truth might still be worth enduring if only to mine the extensive data and whatever environmental information might unfold. But environmentalism isn't Guggenheim's real concern. Presiding over the "rebirth" of Al Gore is. You get the feeling the director would be fine with global warming so long as Gore got to be the next President.