Steven Spielberg gotta know something we don’t, bro is way too obsessed with making alien movies…

“Disclosure Day” is the latest film from Steven Speilberg, and follows a cybersecurity whistleblower (Josh O’Connor) and meteorologist (Emily Blunt) who become involved in a government conspiracy. Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, and Colman Domingo also star, as David Koepp writes the script based on an idea by Spielberg.

At this point in time, getting a new film in theaters from a storied director like Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, or Robert Zemeckis is a blessing. And it’s extra special to get a movie from Spielberg about aliens, a topic that he has always been fascinated with. “Disclosure Day” plays like a spiritual sequel to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in its tone and messaging, and is definitely a film made by an experienced director in the twilight of his career (for better or worse).

After cementing himself as a leading man with “Challengers,” Josh O’Connor has been busy, heading films like “Wake Up Dead Man” and “The Mastermind,” and finally earns a big-budget paycheck and work with a legendary director. O’Connor doesn’t really do anything outside his established comfort zone (that being speaking softly and carrying a quiet sense of empathy), but it serves the purpose that Spielberg wants from him. Emily Blunt (who recently reprised her role in “The Devil Wears Prada 2“) is no stranger to big-budget films with storied directors, having recently earned an Oscar nomination from her work in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” I didn’t totally gel with what her character does here, but that is more of an issue with David Koepp’s somewhat messy screenplay and not her performance (though like many actors nowadays, she can’t move her face due to botox and fillers, and that does in-turn limit her acting).

The first hour of the film plays like a 70s conspiracy thriller, with O’Connor and his girlfriend (Eve Hewson) running from Colin Firth’s shadow agency after O’Connor steals proof of extraterrestrial life. I think this is when the film is at its best, including a very unnerving sequence of Firth using alien technology to communicate with Hewson, as well as an intense train chase). But somewhere late in the second act the tone pivots to Speilberg’s traditional sense of optimism and underlying faith in humanity, and I think that it doesn’t totally work. Without getting into spoiler territory, if the entire film was about trying to find the positives in leaking government secrets or seeing the best in humanity then the climax would make sense. However, because we spend the first 90 minutes watching Firth and his team try to capture and kill O’Connor and Blunt, the third act’s messaging felt a little bit like a 180 for me. Though for what it’s worth, my girlfriend did like the end results while finding the more tense opening act to be the “whatever” part, so maybe it’s just a matter of personal taste.

Like I said earlier, David Koepp’s script is a bit of a mess, jumping around between four-to-five different character’s storyline (each time we would cut back to a person I found myself thinking “oh right, they’re in this” which is never a good sign). There are several things that are never really explained and seem to be in the film just to be “trailer moments,” and I think some of the ideas that Koepp and Spielberg try to pose, like how aliens would change humanity’s views on religion or if telling people the truth is always the right thing to do, don’t really affect where we end up (I also do not think the final moment works as well as Spielberg thinks it does).

“Disclosure Day” is a usually entertaining summer blockbuster that is the closest to “old form” that Spielberg has seen since “Bridge of Spies” or “Crystal Skull” (which is fun, shut it!). There are certainly issues with the story (and it is far too long at 145 minutes), but thanks to solid special effects, a dedicated ensemble cast, and firm direction from one of our legends, the film is able to get over the finish line, even if it isn’t totally as good as the sum of its parts.

Critics Rating: 6/10