Disclosure Day Review: Steven Spielberg’s Return to Aliens Is Flawed but Fascinating

Disclosure Day marks director Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated return to the world of aliens. It’s a subgenre of science fiction that the filmmaker has thrived in, delivering all-time classics like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He hasn’t tackled an alien story since 2005’s War of the Worlds, and there feels like a lot riding on this one. There’s an incredible amount of pressure and expectation associated with the sort of “master’s return” aura that has surrounded the promotion of this movie. It’s too much for almost any movie to live up to, and unfortunately, Disclosure Day trips and stumbles more than once on its mad dash for the finish line; however, a standout cast, memorable set pieces, and Spielberg’s innate ability to capture an audience’s imagination make it a solidly entertaining time at the movies.

What is Disclosure Day about?

Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada 2) is the weather woman for a local news channel. When she unexplainably begins speaking live on the air in a language never before heard on Earth, she finds herself tangled in a conspiracy involving the existence of life elsewhere in the universe. Although she’s never met him, Margaret feels a bond and connection to Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor, Challengers). Together, they’ll have to outrun and outsmart the secret organization hunting them and disclose the truth that’s been hidden for decades.

Disclosure Day review

It’s clear that Disclosure Day is a passion project of Spielberg’s. You can feel the excitement and joy of bringing the story to life emanating from behind the camera in every scene, and that intangible feeling of movie magic is largely why the film works despite numerous head-scratching story decisions. My biggest issue with the movie is in the handling of the cat-and-mouse chase that drives the plot. On one hand, you have a pair that seems competent, but in over their heads. On the other hand, a team of highly trained operatives with seemingly endless resources at their disposal. It’s a chase that by all accounts would be over very quickly, but with a runtime of two and a half hours, the story demands a bit of back and forth that stretches the limits of believability paper-thin. Both sides repeatedly make decisions that make absolutely no sense in the context of the story, and time after time the duo manages to slip through the grasp of the operatives despite what seems like a clear case of nowhere to go.

The screenplay from David Koepp (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park) is littered with generic “This happens, and then this happens,” moments, but excels in crafting a compelling mystery that truly captured my attention. The movie is too long, by at least thirty minutes, but despite that, I was never bored and never lost interest. I found myself on numerous occasions anxiously wondering, “how will this end?” The climax ultimately does itself the disservice of taking itself way too seriously. This is a very silly movie, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, but it asks serious questions about what the existence of alien life means for religion. These topics aren’t handled with a great amount of finesse or subtlety, but the idea of these two concepts coming face to face and how we as humans would accept and interpret them is among the most interesting material in the movie.

Emily Blunt gives the best performance of her career, and it’s a role that truly allows her to shine as a lead character, not dependent on a romantic subplot. Margaret does have a boyfriend, played by Wyatt Russell (Thunderbolts*, Night Swim), but the romantic nature of their relationship is never a focal point. Russell’s only purpose in the movie was to react with confusion and a manner of such bewilderment that the audience is forced to chuckle (which they did). Margaret’s arc is often illogical, but there’s enough depth to the character to allow Blunt to showcase her range and command the screen. Coleman Domingo and Colin Firth also turn in solid performances, although their roles are more one-dimensional.

Is Disclosure Day worth seeing?

At times, Disclosure Day feels like classic Spielberg, and at others it feels like a mishandled overcorrection. I don’t use the word “overcorrection” to insinuate that Spielberg’s films have dipped in quality. I think West Side Story and The Fabelmans are masterpieces, but their box-office performance showed a clear divide between general audiences and late-term Spielberg. Disclosure Day feels like it exists with the primary goal of showing audiences that the director of Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds can still deliver an out-of-this-world blockbuster, and ends up sacrificing story in favor of spectacle.

It’s at least thirty minutes longer than it needs to be, but in true Spielberg fashion, the majority of that runtime is comprised of wonder and whimsy. There are moments of poor CGI, primarily in the depiction of animals, that almost entirely pulled me out of the story, and more than one narrative thread that feel abandoned or missed. Disclosure Day is undeniably flawed, but ultimately succeeds as a mostly riveting science-fiction thriller that reunites Steven Spielberg with his favorite cinematic topic: aliens.

Disclosure Day Review: Steven Spielberg’s Return to Aliens Is Flawed but Fascinating