Film Review - Disclosure Day

I am back again with another film review. It's been awhile but that's mostly due to wanting to finish the novel I am currently working on, Avalon - The Shadowed Trials. More on that in the future.

All right then, here we go. As always, spoiler alerts so if you haven't watched the movie yet, maybe come back after you did (although not that many this time around).

Title: Disclosure Day

Release Date: June 12, 2026

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenplay: David Koepp

Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson.

Run Time: 2 hrs 23 minutes

Genres: Sci-Fi Thriller. Political/Conspiracy Thriller. Drama.

Overview: A meteorologist and a cybersecurity expert find themselves at the center of a movement to expose the government's cover-up of extraterrestrial secrets..

Steven Spielberg is, undoubtedly, one of the best directors of all time. No disputes from me there. However, despite that fact, the man can still have some misses. Disclosure Day was a definite miss with me. The premise is fine, I suppose. Aliens being disclosed to the public is a pretty popular trope but if done well, it can still be enjoyable. Sadly, I don't think that was really the case with this movie. It didn't really give me much in the way of uniqueness, stakes, or compelling storytelling. Also, this might have been better if released maybe a decade or so earlier considering the many tik toks, memes, and such making fun of "aliens being disclosed to the public and the public simply not caring and going on about their days" that I've seen in recent years. All I could think about during the movie were those videos.

There were some minor inconsistencies with the movie here and there as well. The biggest example of this is when one of the characters, Hugh Wakefield (played by Colman Domingo), seems surprised that Daniel Kellner (played by Josh O'Connor) is another "experiencer" but then later, the same character acts like he knew he was one the whole time. I also wasn't a huge fan of the religious bits thrown in either, mostly brought up by Daniel's girlfriend/situationship, Jane Blankenship (played by Eve Hewson). It felt thrown in and didn't really connect with the main story. Take that out and the movie would've still worked just fine. It definitely felt unneeded.

With that being said, there were some definite highlights. Emily Blunt (playing Margaret Fairchild) did a phenomenal job. She really brought the character to life. It gave the story a much needed anchor. She felt quirky but still relatable. The abilities she displayed and how they were shown were also well done. To flawlessly move back and forth between different languages as if you'd been speaking them your whole life came off really well. It kept my interest, was something that did feel unique, and made sense for the story.

My recommendation is that if you like alien movies, give it a go. You may like it. I, personally, didn't. Not really. It just had a couple parts that were pretty cool.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5