"I wish there was something more unique and special about it, but nothing surprised me... The magic, the wonder, the awe—I’ve been missing that from Spielberg for a very long time."
Disclosure Day was a sci-fi thriller film that was released in 2026, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by David Koepp, and starring Emily Blunt as Margaret Fairchild, as well as Josh O’Connor as Dr. Daniel Kellner, Colin Firth as Noah Scanlon, Eve Hewson as Jane Blankenship, and Colman Domingo as Hugo Wakefield... it’s basically about a regular TV weather reporter and a rogue tech whistleblower who team up to drop the ultimate secret on humanity: aliens are 100% real. They’re scrambling to leak absolute proof of extraterrestrial life to the whole planet before a shady, powerful government contractor tracks them down and silences them for good.
If you’ve been following my reviews for a little over a year, you would have realized that I’ve been going through and covering each and every single Steven Spielberg film on my channel in preparation to see his newest film, Disclosure Day. Now, in terms of anticipation, this was a movie that was definitely up there for me. For the last decade or so, the idea of watching a Spielberg film has been kind of a mixed bag. While there are a few winners, a lot of them tend to be stuffy, Oscar-bait type of films. Movies that, sure, are made extremely well... it is Spielberg, after all... but the magic, the wonder, the awe... I’ve been missing that from Spielberg for a very long time. I didn’t really know what I would find with Disclosure Day... but I did know Spielberg was going back to his roots... back to the aliens... and if there was one subgenre that he’s known for that’s almost always a winner... it’s science fiction and aliens. From Close Encounters to E.T. to War of the Worlds and his mini-series in 2002, Taken. So many of these are gold standards of what I think of when I think Spielberg in general, but really, it’s also what I think of when I think alien cinema. In 2026, he is back. We got more alien stuff... during a time it couldn’t be more relevant, with the current administration literally disclosing UFO footage and paperwork from decades past... so... does it live up to the hype?
I want to say yes. I want to say Spielberg is back, baby... but as strange as this sounds... Disclosure Day doesn’t feel like Spielberg’s typical DNA. There’s something about it that feels absurdly average... like something a lot of other directors could pull off similarly. With Spielberg’s biggest hits, you know nobody could pull off a lot of what he’s done in the past other than him. Both in style and directing, and even choices he makes as a producer. Disclosure Day just feels like another random alien-themed blockbuster that, granted, is made pretty darn well overall and has a few great ideas in there, but I really... truly don’t know what it is about the film. Is the magic gone? Is that what it is? Where a lot of what he’s done with alien films in the past have had this... unspoken level of magic and awe... is it just gone here?
Is the story simply too predictable overall and nothing new? I wish I could tell you for sure what it was... However, I guess it’s probably important enough to tell you the film isn’t bad, and it’s nothing I watched and had a horrible experience with. The movie is good. It’s interesting more than anything else. It has some pretty great, grounded performances from a strong cast that, granted... I also don’t think the casting choices were necessarily the right ones. Like, Colin Firth as the bad guy... weird choice. Even Emily Blunt as the meteorologist... she looks the part, but I didn’t fully believe her character the entire time. But who they got for these roles did an okay job overall. Nothing stood out as horrific or anything.
The main draw of the film is how all of these characters play a vital role into the overall narrative of the film. What is going on. Why is this happening. Why is this day of disclosure happening now... and all of these characters are individually going through things in their own personal lives that, as the film progresses, start to intertwine. This is when you find what their purpose is in the disclosure. This, hands down, is the most interesting and original aspect of the film. I won’t go into what makes each of their characters special, but trust me when I say they’re all unique in a very specific way. Without each of them doing their own thing to help with the progression of the story, the story doesn’t happen. So, I did like this aspect of the film.
Pacing-wise, I think it’s a well-crafted film that more or less swims by with ease. It has a few action set pieces that are a lot of fun. Some, even, that are funny. I can easily say that in terms of Spielberg’s latest decade in his career, this is one of his better, more entertaining films, but out of his entire filmography, it has to be the weakest of the alien films. I wish there was something more unique and special about it, but again, I can’t put my finger on what it is in this film, but nothing surprised me. Actually no, one thing surprised me. In a world where we are just oversaturated with fake videos being produced by AI, a ton of which we can’t always immediately accept as fact... I don’t know what these people are thinking they’re going to accomplish. In today’s day and age, if anybody plans to leak aliens to the press, complete with video footage proof... I just can’t see everybody accepting it. I see a lot of people saying “AI slop.” People are quick to be disbelieving, especially in today’s day and age... so the fact that nobody in this movie questioned what they were looking at... bothers me. It doesn’t reflect reality right now.
Overall, I can say I’m a little disappointed in the movie, but it could have been a lot worse. So let’s count our blessings and talk end score.
Unbiased/Technical Score: 35/50 (70%)
Biased/Entertainment Score: 32/50 (64%)
Total Combined Score: 67/100 (67% or 3.5/5 on Letterboxd)