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Disclosure Day First Reviews: Another Steven Spielberg Sci-Fi Classic
Steven Spielberg tackles aliens again in Disclosure Day, which opens in theaters this weekend. The first reviews are now online and very positive, with some saying it’s the director’s best movie in years. Emily Blunt also gives one of the best performances of her career as a meteorologist drawn into a government conspiracy to hide evidence of decades’ worth of extraterrestrial sightings and contact. The majority of reviews recommend it as a thrilling yet hopeful blockbuster from the filmmaker who defined the summer movie season a half-century ago.
Here’s what critics are saying about Disclosure Day:
Has Steven Spielberg given us another classic?
Steven Spielberg has done it again… Everything about this film is perfect.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Disclosure Day [is] a great film from our greatest director that feels guaranteed to only get better the more people discuss it and mull over its intentions.
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
It’s been a long time since Steven Spielberg directed a film as quintessentially Spielbergian as Disclosure Day… an essential addition to [his] rich body of work.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Steven Spielberg triumphantly returns to the world of UFOs and extraterrestrials with his newest masterpiece.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
[It’s] a thrilling sci-fi blockbuster that reaffirms Spielberg’s unmatched command of storytelling.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
A synthesis of Spielberg’s entire sci-fi movie career (and then some)… it calls to mind the best of Spielberg’s most iconic blockbusters.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
One of the best movies of the year.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
How does it compare to his other movies?
The obvious Spielberg comparison here is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which serves more as a sibling film than a prequel. And to be clear, Disclosure Day is far less innocent than that film and more suspicious of wonder.
— Jon Negroni, Thank God for Movies
Disclosure Day never gives you the contact high of awe that Close Encounters did… where Close Encounters tapped into the mystery of all this with an innocence that was both starry-eyed and spectacular, Disclosure Day feels like a thriller docudrama that’s too cut-and-dried about what it believes.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
As much as Spielberg’s early sci-fi, the new film kept taking me back to the moral and philosophical questions posed by 2002’s brilliant Minority Report.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Between the futuristic technology and the numerous chase scenes, it feels more like Minority Report than any of Spielberg’s previous alien-related pictures.
— Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hecht
As intensely thrilling as it is emotionally powerful, [it’s] tapping into a similar tonal mash-up we’ve seen within Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
Disclosure Day feels like the most energized filmmaking Spielberg has done in decades, and it’s at least his most propulsive movie since War of the Worlds.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
Spielberg has made the most inaccessible, tedious, and obvious movie about alien life of his entire career.
— Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Does he do anything new here as a filmmaker?
Whatever you’re expecting this movie to be, Spielberg has some of that for you, but he’s also delivering something different as well. I was thrilled and moved by what he revealed.
— Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
In Disclosure Day, director Steven Spielberg isn’t just wielding one of his most famous tropes — he’s weaponizing it, using it as a major plot device in a fast-paced story rich with both adult sophistication and childlike wonder.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Steven Spielberg revisits several themes he’s tackled throughout his long career, most notably human-alien content and the revisiting of childhood trauma. But he handles both in a way that feels original, or at least different from the director’s past treatments of such subjects.
— Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hecht
How is the storytelling?
It’s mature storytelling in the best way, trusting the audience to understand the story’s meaning without too much handholding.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
The script reportedly went through more than 40 drafts, but Koepp appears to have nailed it.
— Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hecht
Spielberg has always been a populist filmmaker, but the extent to which he and screenwriter David Koepp put the audience to work piecing together the puzzle is invigorating.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Certain aspects of the screenplay are troublingly inelegant. Some character details are tossed out with little follow-through.
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
Its conspiracy machinery can get dense in the way Koepp scripts sometimes do when they’re having too much fun with procedural nouns.
— Jon Negroni, Thank God for Movies
There’s so much going on in Disclosure Day that David Koepp’s script sometimes trips over itself trying to explain it all.
— Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Does the movie have a good message?
It is the powerful message that makes this one of Spielberg’s best.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
The film’s message is, ultimately, equally pure and simple: Empathy.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
You will leave the theater a different person. In a very good way! Whether that feeling endures is up to each one of us. If we all allowed the message to take hold, the world could become a better place. I think we can all agree that more empathy could help the world of today.
— Karina Adelgaard, Heaven of Horror
Disclosure Day is an urgent call to fight back against misinformation, a clear threatening cancer for the future of the human race, and a very real one overtaking our daily lives.
— Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
The movie’s message [is] that humanity is beautiful in its capacity to accept, and perhaps embrace, the unknown. It’s quite a sentimental message to leave audiences with, but hey, that’s Spielberg.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
How are the action sequences?
Spielberg stages two major action sequences in the film, both functioning as car chases, and when the film settles into that rhythm, he proves once again that there is no one better at staging this kind of kinetic action.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
The breathless action sequences are especially thrilling. Notable among them is a high-speed chase in which Margaret and Daniel jump from a car to a moving train.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Daniel and Margaret’s journey has them engaging in high-speed car chases and leaping onto speeding trains, in a sequence that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Bond movie.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
A car chase that collides into the side of a moving train with Blunt and O’Connor hanging on for dear life is a new action highlight in the Spielberg canon, a blast to watch.
— Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Is it visually spectacular?
The visuals are stunning, and the cinematography is top-notch.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Spielberg’s work with his long-time cinematographer Janusz Kamiński continues to push boundaries here. The camera work is truly frenetic.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
Its cinematography is rarely showy, but breathtaking when it is.
— Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
Visually, the film is on par with grounded, realist 1970s conspiracy thrillers during its early portions. But as the film moves forward, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński opts for the heightened realism employed in so many of his collaborations with Spielberg.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
Kaminski’s affection for bright points of light is more obvious here than ever before, with lens flares and spotlights aplenty. Depending on one’s taste, this can feel like a bit much at times.
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
How is Emily Blunt’s performance?
She’s the movie’s MVP, navigating the hairpin turns required of her character’s journey with an ease that could be overlooked.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Disclosure Day belongs entirely to Emily Blunt…[it’s] quite possibly the best performance of her career.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
The best performance of her career…the type of performance that makes you think about the unlimited range within an actor as she nails the thinnest tight rope walk she’s been given as a performer.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
You have never seen Emily Blunt like this.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Blunt [is] simply breathtaking and never more magnetic, injecting a whirlwind of emotions into Margaret as she’s hurtled forward by terrifying instincts that she’s powerless to control.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
One of, if not the best, performances of her impressive career. There are so many different modes that she has to take on as her character, and all of them are executed perfectly.
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
Does anyone else in the cast stand out?
[Josh] O’Connor matches [Blunt] beat for beat.
— Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
[Eve] Hewson is given a showcase scene in which Scanlon attempts to use the device on her to control her every move, and her physical performance under intense duress continues to demonstrate her fantastic range.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
The weakest but still fascinating piece of the film is Jane (Eve Hewson), Daniel’s partner and the character asked to carry much of the religious anxiety.
— Jon Negroni, Thank God for Movies
[Colin] Firth is the real standout as the deliciously sinister embodiment of the shadowy federal authority.
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
The weakest link might be Colin Firth, but the issues with his performance feel largely script-based.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
I must highlight the performance of Courtney Grace, who practically has the job of conveying what all humankind is experiencing in the final moments of the movie.
— Karina Adelgaard, Heaven of Horror
How is John Williams’ score?
John Williams, at 94 years old, delivers one of his best scores in years.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
John Williams’s full-bodied score… stands among the veteran composer’s finest.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
The absolute best John Williams score in years.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
Here, his work is light on notable themes, but undeniably rousing, filled with distinctly Williamsian instrumental choices and flourishes (and of course, heavy use of French horn).
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
The score by John Williams is phenomenal. It is sweeping, operatic, and haunting, elevating every single scene where it is featured.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Will audiences be satisfied with how the movie ends?
The finale… is the movie’s masterstroke.
— Jon Negroni, Thank God for Movies
The final scenes of Disclosure Day are among the most emotionally riveting of Spielberg’s career in ways you won’t predict.
— Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
The end of this movie is something truly special. It is a bold, emotional choice that delivers something far more profound than I anticipated going in.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Some will feel that the film’s ending is exactly where the story of Disclosure Day should begin, but that’s the point.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
It takes on a tense, at-times upsetting quality the closer we get to the credits. But at the same time, the ending somehow manages to be utterly powerful and unexpectedly emotional.
— Cody Dericks, AwardsWatch
After an escalatingly choppy and credulity-straining final act, the eventual endpoint of the whole rollercoaster feels like a copout.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine
There are elements of the ending that feel underbaked, characters whose fates feel ill-defined.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Does it have any other problems?
The problem is that the drama supporting all of Disclosure Day’s ideas is convoluted and schematic, and at its worst, is out of touch.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine
It occasionally over-explains what its images have already told us.
— Jon Negroni, Thank God for Movies
The idea that aliens can present themselves to humans as familiar animal species is arguably the only instance in which Spielberg gets borderline cheesy, not least because it’s the film’s most distracting CG element.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Disclosure Day opens in theaters June 12, 2026. Get your tickets here.
