It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I have watched the documentary cutting off the voice and the music, reading the script only. I found the music too emphatic. It gives the layman a good overall picture of the evolutionary facts concerning our planet. I was wondering if the message at the end could not be a bit more bold: it is kind of obvious that man has had a hand in transforming the planet and will this not have an impact and will this not create another cataclysmic change like earth has lived through its history?

I've watched this documentary about a half dozen times and I really enjoy it, as do others that I watched it with. I have seen this with two versions of narrations, American and UK. The American narrator is annoying to listen to. The UK narrator is much better. The only difference is in units of measurements. I would give it 10 stars if it wasn't for the narrator.

The general content of this TV movie is worth having. But it's mis-titled and poorly narrated and written.Rather than being a history of our planet, this is only a partial history, focused primarily on the planet's suitability for life on it. It dwells less on planetology and more on biological evolution as the movie progresses.I found the narration (both US narrator and script) annoying.Warden Querns -- er, Reg E Cathey -- just doesn't have the right tone for a history of the planet. His voice is neither full of admiration for the subject like Morgan Freeman, nor full of gravitas like David Attenborough. It is too stern a voice, an angry teacher.The script itself contains too many generalizations. As one example, it repeatedly implies that all the dinosaurs were wiped out, yet ignores that birds are likely their descendants. Further, no evidence is given for any of the claims in this video, so it plays more like a religious origin story than anything scientific. It diminishes the factual content, to present it in this way.The animation is (by today's standards) amateurish, video-game like. The soundtrack could be mistaken for a CNN political broadcast. This information does not need "help" from the audio and video team. Rather, it deserves respect, which it sadly did not get.Other TV movies have done this better. I would recommend Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009) for the biological part, and the miniseries "Wonders of the Universe" (2011) for the rest.