Video game meets documentary. That’s the rough format of Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, the latest documentary film created by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. The “hero” — aka Morgan — picks various challenges — aka different real-life locales — and fights his nemesis — aka not actually fights but chats with people.

Where in the World is cheekily funny but also politically serious — with a personal bent. After all, Morgan — at least as seen through his documentaries — is a fairly chilled out dude who hangs out, gets along with most people, and just sees what happens.

So despite the fact that his vegan nutritionist wife’s pregnant with their first child, Morgan starts traveling around the world, ostensibly in search of Osama.

More realistically, Morgan’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and other countries are intended to give viewers a sense of the difference between the way the mass media portrays the Middle East, Islam and its followers, and the issues that beleaguer those areas — and the way the people who live in those places and practice Islam conceive of themselves, their religion, and the world at large.

No, the areas Morgan goes through don’t resemble the US. In fact, most of these countries are war-torn, dangerous, and generally run down, plagued with poverty and under the rule of violent dictators. Yet what Morgan shows via his casual convos with the people in these places is that all of us have have many values in common: Safe communities, individual freedoms, viable economic opportunities.

The overarching message of Where in the World isn’t new. In fact, it’s something many eminent sociologists and political scientists have been saying for quite some time: Terrorist activity feeds not on this nebulous thing called “pure evil,” but on real-world, tangible problems like poverty, lack of education, and absence of economic opportunity — plus those cultural vendettas created around the belief that “pure evil” could be eradicated if “we” eradicate “them.”

But what Morgan does way better than the academic wonks is illuminate these issues in a nuanced, individualistic, the political-is-personal way that cannot be conveyed — or felt — via the soundbyte talking points of television news.

Wanna judge for yourself? Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden comes out on DVD tomorrow. Cost: $24.95.

BTW, I’ve never seen Morgan’s 30 Days on FX. Should I Netflix it?

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