By Dan Skip Allen

“Disclosure Day” isn’t the first film Steven Spielberg  has directed that has featured aliens or some kind of story revolving around alien phenomena. He’s directed “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “ET the Extraterrestrial,” and “War of the War,” to name a few. Hopefully,  it’ll be his last, though. This one is anchored by four very good performances and some great action scenes, but it’s pretty redundant because we’re seen this type of film before. I didn’t expect Spielberg to rehash something film fans have seen quite a bit before, and familiar ground he himself has trekked upon a lot of the years. This is just tiresome material I never thought Spielberg would retread again in his career. At least if he could have given me something new regarding this genre, I could have gotten behind it. 

Josh O’Connor plays a cybersecurity Connor, an expert for a company called Wardex Corporation, who decides to steal their secrets and become a whistle-blower revealing their secrets about aliens to the world. This puts him on the run from the corporation and the law. All the while, a meteorologist (Emily Blunt) experiences weird things that keep happening to her. These experiences lead her to try and help the O’Connor character. Led by Colman Domingo, together they try to do what they think is the right thing regarding the American people and the world. Which is trying to give them all the information they have. Which may not be exactly the best course of action.

Spielberg tried to use a story that came to him in a dream and got frequent collaborator David Koepp to write the script. There are themes of secrecy and trust in this film, and we, as the viewer, have to decide which we are going to follow along with. Are we sick of the government keeping secrets of a terrestrial nature from us? Or are we tired of trying to trust our government? Or both for that matter. I, for one, don’t really care. This has been something that has been in the public consciousness for decades now. I think everybody knows there are aliens out there in space. We couldn’t be the only species in the vast wasteland that is space. I don’t think filmgoers need Spielberg to ask this question to us again. It’s old by now.

One of the positives for this movie is the acting by the main cast members. Specifically by Blunt and O’Connor. Blunt gives one of the best performances of her career as the meteorologist caught up in this alien conspiracy.  She speaks multiple languages and serves as a guiding light for many in the film. O’Connor, on the other hand, plays a character that serves as an example of what we may do in his place given the circumstances. He’s turned into a whistle-blower. With the help of the Domingo character, he fights for what he believes in and acts nobly to serve his cause. He believes he was chosen for a reason. Together, Blunt and O’Connor anchor this film with good supporting turns from Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, and the aforementioned Colman Domingo. They all sell this story pretty well.  

A few of the other things that were interesting or rather entertaining about this movie are the action sequences. There was one car chase scene  in particular that had me excited. I don’t see a lot of this type of sequence in his films, so this was a breath of fresh air. He can do great action scenes, though, as evidenced by the “Indiana Jones” franchise. There were some amazing action scenes in those films over the years. Also, the technology that was used in context to the story was pretty cool. There was a mind reading and body entering technology that made the story very fascinating to me. It created an element I wasn’t expecting in the overall context of the film. These were a few of the more entertaining aspects of the movie, considering I wasn’t exactly enamored by the film. 

I have always been fascinated by aliens and the possibilities of aliens on earth. It’s nothing new to me. I think by now, the American public believes aliens have visited our planet. The whole thing about little green men with big eyes is the obligatory look that most Americans have of what they think are the aliens that may have visited Earth. Area 51 and so forth is old news by now. I just don’t get why Spielberg thinks this is what the people of the world want to see right now. Considering he’s already made multiple films about alien lifeforms visiting Earth, I think this is a little too much by now. This is a filmmaker that can make any movie he wants, and he gives viewers this old and tired concept I think is overdone by now. Spielberg is my second favorite director behind Martin Scorsese, and I will always love him and his films, but I won’t love this one. I might like it over time, but that’s about it.

“Disclosure Day” was a movie I was very excited about when I heard about it and later saw the first teaser trailer.  After walking out of the film, I was quite disappointed by most of what I had seen. I have to expect more from Steven Spielberg than this. Sure, the acting was terrific, and a few of the concepts and action scenes had me interested, but by and large, this was a film that asked questions the public had stopped caring about years ago. Why do we care about whether or not aliens have visited Earth or not. We’re dealing with so many bigger issues right now. I don’t think this is what the public needs from one of the greatest, arguably the greatest filmmakers of all time, right now. They need Spielberg to take them to new worlds or immerse them in crazy scenarios or fight Nazi’s or tell stories about legendary people from history. Not rehash something he’s done better a couple of times before. I’m sorry, but this film isn’t what I want from my second favorite director. Lately, he hasn’t given me much to get behind. Hopefully, his next film will be more up my alley. 

🌟 🌟 1/2