Now, I get I’m a little late to the party here when it comes to talking about this specific new release, but I’ve had a very busy week in general and just couldn’t find time for a blog. Luckily for me, this movie is still causing major discourse in the online film communities so there’s still some relevancy and reason to talk about it, so that’s what we’re going to do. Disclosure Day is a 2026 action/sci-fi film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Colin Firth. I am just going to preface this by saying I think the main reason this movie is even causing the discourse it is is simply for the fact that it’s Steven Spielberg. I mean this is the legendary director who created the summer blockbuster with ‘Jaws’, gave us family movie night classics like ‘E.T.’ and ‘Jurassic Park’, one of my favorite film series of all time with ‘Indiana Jones’, and WW2 epics such as ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. I get it. When you hear his name attached to a film there’s a certain level of prestige that you automatically hold it to, even if you don’t realize it. So let’s get into it.
Now, I’m going to start by saying that I also have a lot of love and respect for Steven Spielberg as a director. I mean look at the list of films I ran down of his, and that’s not even all his hits either. The guy has unquestionably left his mark on film lore forever and will always be seen as one of the most legendary film directors of all time. I will also say I do not think that he is necessarily the same director he used to be either, but how can he be? You cannot hold up the kind of momentum that guy had in the 80s and 90s forever and he’s getting pretty up there in age nowadays as well. I think for me personally, in the 2000’s millennium he’s only had a couple of movies I really enjoyed and if I’m really being nitpicky, you’d have to go back to about the early 90’s and previous to start getting into some of his real hits and big-time classics. All that said though, if his name is attached to a film still to this day, I’m going to be sat up in that theater to check it out. Especially something like a sci-fi thriller film, which is a genre he’s played in before and found great success. I have some trust with Spielberg and the action and sci-fi genres and if I’m being honest, I actually found some enjoyment in Disclosure Day. Much more than a lot of people who live online seemed to find at least, but that’s not saying much.
The movie centers around 2 people with an uncanny close connection to extra-terrestrials and each other attempting to expose long-held government secrets and a secret government organization who’s not only withheld information on the existence of aliens from the public for decades, but also the fact that they’ve been running tests and experiments on the beings all this time as well. So, a very Spielberg like story and something that if he released it even 2 or more decades ago it would’ve felt a lot more mysterious and sci-fi like, but now just feels pretty much like a documentary and somewhat of an ominous warning. There are still moments of fun and levity all throughout it and big action set pieces sprinkled in as well, but the overall message and plot of the story feel all too real in the modern world we live in and the little information that we do know. I will say Spielberg’s view on how the modern world works maybe felt a bit dated and out of touch in this movie just for the fact that the story revolved around a meteorologist attempting to break the information to the public via the news and that’s what starts the wildfire. Everyone watching the news in all these cities and seeing this unreleased footage of aliens and it just stopping the world dead in its tracks. I don’t think that’s really how it would go nowadays because for one no one really watches the news anymore. At least not the vast majority of people are sitting down to watch the evening news, they’re just scrolling social media and finding out major information that way so that’s likely what would start the spread now.
Also, I don’t think the confirmation of the existence of alien beings would stop the world dead in its tracks anymore and make them actually think beyond themselves. As much as I hope I’m wrong and I wish that it would, everyone lives in their own worlds through screens and hearts and DMs nowadays so I think people would be too wrapped up in their own world and their own worries to really care. We all kind of figure aliens exist at this point anyways so just having that information confirmed to us would create more of a “knew it.” reaction and people would just move on. It would have to take their ships coming into our skies and directly communicating with us to even get us to look up at them nowadays I think and that’s truthfully depressing. Back to Disclosure Day though, outside of those nitpicky gripes I overall had a good time with this film. It’s not one of my overall favorite Spielberg movies now or anything like that, but it’s certainly not one of his worst or weakest I don’t think either. The performances are basically all around phenomenal in this once again as to be expected, but Emily Blunt stole the show for me and most others from what I’ve seen and heard as well. She’s pretty great in everything she’s in, but she had a very important and leading role here and it felt like one of the more standout performances of her career to this point.
For me, this would rank as better than War of the Worlds and not near as good as E.T. when it comes to Spielberg and aliens, but what do I know. E.T. is a damn classic and I didn’t care too much for War of the Worlds. It was also great to have John Williams back scoring this film at the fresh age of 94. Spielberg and Williams are just such a classic director/composer duo though and it’s wonderful to be able to still get them on a film together in 2026. Williams is basically retired nowadays, but he’ll come back and work with Steven still, and I think that says a lot about that partnership and bond. Despite much of the online discourse (and there is a lot of it), this movie is currently holding a 6.7 on IMDb and an 80% from critics and 71% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Not the greatest, but boy it could be a whole lot worse also. That’s what I’m saying, I think the main reason this film is even causing the buzz it is online is because it’s Steven Spielberg himself. Don’t let your expectations soar too high, go in expecting a fun sci-fi summer blockbuster, and you’ll likely have a good time. It’s nearly 2 and a half hours long though and I admittedly felt that runtime as we started nearing the end, but with Steven Spielberg it’s hardly ever less than 2 hours.
That’ll do it for this one though folks! Make sure to like my page on social media or come back to the website often to keep up with all my latest over newly released films, horror films (new & classic), pro wrestling, and more! Thank you and until next time, be good to one another!
