Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day Follows Margaret Fairchild and Daniel Kellner in Alien Truth Race

Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day follows a TV weatherperson, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), and a government whistleblower, Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), as their stories collide in a life-or-death race against time to reveal the truth about the existence of aliens.

“The summer blockbuster season has kicked off in earnest with the theatrical release of Disclosure Day, director Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated return to his “aliens are among us” sci-fi roots”

Ars Technica

JoBlo describes the film as feeling like Spielberg “grabbing us by the collar” and says it “barely lets up” after the first shot of a POV of a professional wrestler kicking the hell out of us.

Ars Technica

Ars Technica frames the first half as “essentially a political thriller” as Daniel steals alien technology and highly classified files from Wardex Corporation, a top-secret extension of the US government led by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth).

In Ars Technica’s account, Scanlon flushes out Daniel by holding his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) hostage, then Daniel double-crosses them and escapes with Jane as Scanlon declares Daniel a traitor.

Ars Technica adds that Margaret resumes her conversation with her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell) only in Russian, then finds she can read the thoughts and feeling of other people and converse in their native languages.

The reactions to Disclosure Day split sharply, with JoBlo calling Spielberg “one of” the few filmmakers left where a new movie still feels like an event, while The Free Press argues the film “isn't very good.”

JoBlo says the movie will “divide people” and describes its final act as “the kind of huge, sincere climax that a lot of modern blockbusters would be too embarrassed to attempt.”

The Free Press

The Free Press criticizes the film for indulging “intellectual pretensions,” and it says the story is “being billed as a spiritual successor to Spielberg's 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Ars Technica’s verdict is that there’s “not much fresh or original here as movies about aliens go,” but it still calls the film “fast-paced” and highlights a “luminous performance by Emily Blunt.”

Ars Technica also notes that a pivotal moment featured in all the trailers goes viral when Margaret starts her live weather report and lapses into an alien language on air.

Across the reviews, Disclosure Day’s central tension is whether the truth about human-alien encounters over the last 80 years will be revealed, with Ars Technica describing Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) as pulling the strings behind the scenes to arrange Daniel’s theft.

“The problem with Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day”

The Free Press

Ars Technica says Hugo’s goal is to reveal the contents of the stolen materials, while Scanlon is “equally intent on stopping the truth from ever getting out,” turning the plot into “a high-stakes race against time.”

JoBlo ties the film’s emotional thrust to John Williams, writing that “A lot of that emotional lift comes from John Williams,” and says the score reminds viewers why “his music and Spielberg’s images are such an insane pairing.”

The Free Press, meanwhile, situates the film’s release amid real-world political talk, saying it arrives “just as members of Congress are talking about alien bodies and secret UFO retrieval programs.”

Ars Technica concludes that the film’s final stretch shifts toward the mystical, with a “pronounced vibe shift toward the mystical as the plot threads converge,” even as it notes some have criticized the CGI, particularly for the animals.