A documentary about a retired politician giving a slideshow about global warming may sound boring, but more than 500 enthusiastic people filled a theater in the Sony Metreon Monday night to watch an advance screening of “An Inconvenient Truth," and to briefly hear from the movie’s star, former Vice President Al Gore, and director Davis Guggenheim.

Gore has been traveling the world giving a sophisticated multimedia slideshow with stunning photographic and statistical evidence that takes the viewer on a photographic “nature hike through the book of revelations.”

“An Inconvenient Truth,” brings this eye-opening science lecture to a wider audience and combines it with documentary footage about Gore and the tragic events in his life that convinced him there is a moral imperative to stop runaway climate change and build a better future for the planet.

The empirical evidence and visual imagery are powerful. Beginning with the iconic 1972 photograph of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon, which made a major impact on the first environmental movement, Gore shows how the climactic effects have changed the face of the earth. The film makes a point about how you can see with the human eye, the effects of air pollution, and population growth over the last 50 years. The film shows scientists surveying the ice in Antarctica, they can point to a line in the ice where the U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Act and the world’s most polluting country regulated and cut back on air born pollution.

There is documentary footage of Hurricane Katrina, and the satellite photos illustrating how the energy for that storm built up over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The film is frightening but entertaining. There is a clip from Matt Groening’s “Futurama” used to underscore the point that the greenhouse effect is such basic science that any school child can understand how Mr. Sunbeam gets trapped by the mean greenhouse gasses.

After the film, Gore said it is obvious that young people have more at stake and can help convince their elders that old habits need to be changed.

“Just as the civil rights movement gained traction when redefined as a moral issue,” he said. “Young people asked their parents to look them in the eye and justify what was happening”

A bill working its way through committee in California’s legislature: AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which would cap greenhouse gas emissions, was discussed. Even getting a progressive state like California to stop and gradually reduce greenhouse gasses will be a battle with the energy companies and getting the public involved is important, Gore said.

When first asked about his election loss, he gave a mocking “boo hoo” weep but said he suffers no illusions that as president he would have had the opportunity to achieve changes and things have gotten worse in the last five years.

Gore finished up by stressing the powerful opportunity that we have to confront and transcend the old habits that have led to global warming.

“The biggest opportunity is to find a shared moral purpose and a generational goal worthy of us reaching to our potential,” he said. “These aren’t political controversies, they are moral imperatives.”

The filmmakers have set up a Web site, www.ClimateCrisis.net and urge people to come and pledge to see the movie opening weekend to send a message.