The film opens with a sequence on the history of life on earth, based on science. But it's somewhat important to understand this history, for points made later in the film.

The film shows ways in which our current activities are not sustainable, such as over-use of water, reliance on non-renewable oil and sources of fresh water, the use of agriculture primarily to feed animals to become meat, overpopulation, monoculture, shipping, etc.

It spotlights one case in history (Easter Island) to show what happens when a society doesn't react to the damage it is doing to its own environment.

I thank the filmmakers for drawing attention to my own country's (Canada's) dangerously wasteful use of land, water, and energy in the tar sands of Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the junkie's quest for harder-to-get oil.

Near the end, the film puts some facts on the screen (a few were unfortunately too small to be read). Some struck me as not particularly relevant to the film, such as how many people may be going hungry or thirsty. On the face of it, given the facts in the film, that's a good thing. To clarify, they needed to tie that to the fact that we could fix this problem if the rich used less, and if there were fewer rich.

It does end on a hopeful note, spotlighting some cases where people have taken small steps toward stopping our bad behaviours and living sustainably. It is hopeful, but I wish they had dwelled more on that, because we need concrete solutions that we can go to our mayors and councils with right now. Many of them have their head in the sand with petty politics, social issues, labour issues, the recession, and aren't thinking about when it really hits the fan a decade or two from now.

The images were mostly wide shots or aerial shots of landscapes, herds, cities, factory farms, etc. and were mostly quite beautiful. I also liked the music. Narration was a bit sparse, and in the English version I watched on Youtube (no subtitles), I think the narrator said "climactic" several times when she meant "climatic". But given the scale of what we're facing, maybe either word is OK.

The film was not shown in theatres in my area, nor was it shown on TV, except on the French channel (of course ... all the best stuff is on the French channels in my area) so I did appreciate the simultaneous Youtube release of this film. Given the free home viewing, a torrent would have been even more preferred, for portability and quality. My poor PC had trouble keeping up with the video AND the downloading at the same time.

In comparison with Earth (2007), I found this film to be more relevant to today. It isn't about the beauty of individual animals, but rather our entire home, and it clearly lays out that it's changing and that at a minimum we need to be preparing to handle that, and ideally trying to slow the change down. It's more honest.

In comparison with An Inconvenient Truth, I think it trades some of the information and style for a richer visual that lets the pictures do the talking. It's been a while since I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, but I think it covers much the same territory. I think Al's lecture approach was effective at drawing some people in and presenting the message clearly. But being a political figure maybe Home will attract some different viewers that may have been driven away by the earlier film just by his presence in it.

I was gripped from start to end, at first by its breathtaking aerial footage, then progressively also by its even more breathtaking dramatic plot, which we all are living. No wonder Yann Arthus-Bertrand spent 15 years preparing for the production of Home.

The narration is top-notch, arranged in perfect logic sense and fueled with precise and profound wording, reminds me of audio versions of Scientific American. I had thought it was a pity that David Attenborough wasn't a part of this amazing project, but Glenn Close, five-time Oscar nominee, indeed gave a mesmerizing voice performance, and along with a powerful score, deeply drew me into Home's elaborate illustrations and logical reasonings.

Some might think this documentary is so emotive that it's more of a propaganda despite how fact-based it is, but isn't a subject like this meant to be emotive? No this is not the kind of documentary that presents you with non-judged information for you to consider and debate- of course it is not, it's telling you the most overwhelming and alarming truth through worldwide facts and images in a careful logic flow, and yes with a great lot of passion built in! Vastly connected with the daily life of everyone and the fate of the human race, the movie left me steeped in thoughts. Like said many times in the movie, everything is linked, I find tons of images flashing in my head rapidly after watching Home, and more importantly, now I look at them linked together in a meaningful way.

Let me put it this way, if the entire human race were to be extinct on this planet, Home would be the recording that we should bury deep underground for extra-terrestrials to find out what happened and learn the lesson of our species- it is that good.

Home is a documentary about Earth, humanity, nature, where we're going and what we've been. Shot in 54 countries with aerial footage it's a combination of all the navel-gazing movies we've seen lately like Planet Earth and Baraka. Like a guilty abusive adult, we're now taking a closer look at ourselves, what we've done to the planet and what we've to ourselves.

That's in large part what the first 3/4 of the movie is about. Showing different locations on Earth, the stunning gliding shots of our planet's more beautiful locations as well as the terrible damage we've caused. In that way it's much different than Baraka and Planet Earth, the two films I compared this to. This movie talks about humans, not just their achievements but the economic chaos we've wrought on each other.

The vast differences in class structure in the west from the east. The vast amounts of wealth owned by 2% of the population. Starvation, disease, war, are all covered in this documentary. It's not just about the nature but the capitalist system which has destroyed the planet and brought humanity to its knees.

Many of these changes have occurred in the past 50-100 years. Vast change which is increasing to the point where urbanization is epidemic all over the planet. The melting icecaps are also covered in very nice detail. The consequences are of course very grim. Some of this information I knew but it's good to be reminded how we live in the western world which is rapidly destroying the planet and taking all the innocent passengers along with us.

The movie was released on the internet, television and internet on the same day. It's on YouTube in its entirety, but I downloaded a high quality version from One Big Torrent which was very nice to watch.

Probably one of the best movies of 2009 and one of the best documentaries of the year as well. I highly recommend it.