“Disclosure Day” Review Round-Up: Steven Spielberg Returns to Sci-Fi With a Spellbinding Thriller

The review embargo has been lifted on Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, and we have now made full contact with the full range of what critics are saying. After some very positive initial reactions, you can, if you so choose, sift through the critical reaction to Spielberg’s long-awaited return to the sci-fi genre in full as the film prepares to make contact on June 12. Millions of fans of the iconic director’s work will be heartened by what they read.

For the first time since 2018’s Ready Player One, Spielberg returns to the genre that he’s used as a vehicle for some of his most profoundly moving, ambitiously cinematic masterpieces in his long, storied career, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. to Jurassic Park. Working off his own original idea, with a script from his Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp, the legendary director has deployed an excellent ensemble cast, led by Emily Blunt in what critics are calling a monumental lead performance, to deliver the type of event movie he has mastered so many times before.

The film is centered on Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner, a man who claims to have proof that human beings are not alone in the universe. One person who has reason to believe him is Blunt’s Margaret Fairchild, a weatherwoman in Kansas City who finds herself directly affected, and forever altered, by the presence of otherworldly beings. The cast includes Colin Firth as an official who will do anything in his power to keep the truth from the public, and Colman Domingo as Hugh Wakefield, a fellow truth-seeker alongside O’Connor’s Kellner, caught up in the action. They’re joined by Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, and Michael Gaston.

“A masterfully executed sci-fi conspiracy thriller that beams us right back into the Spielberg heartland of eerie wonder, everyman—and woman—heroes, and optimistic uplift,” says Empire Magazine’s Dan Jolin.

Many critics are praising the fact that Spielberg isn’t afraid to not only go for wonder, but also for emotional uplift.

“Disclosure Day’s epic conclusion comes across as if Spielberg is sending the audience a message, begging them to use their hearts and heads too… I loved every second,” writes The Atlantic’s David Sims.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney says, “For anyone who has loved his movies, Disclosure Day will be an essential addition to Spielberg’s rich body of work.”

Critics are also praising Spielberg’s willingness to reach deep, despite creating conflicting tensions in his own work.

“Disclosure Day can be messy, but much of its beauty lies in that messiness. It’s an astoundingly personal film, and we can sense Spielberg trying to feel his way through the conflicting aspects of his vision,” says Bilge Ibiri of Vulture.

“While Spielberg has never lost his sense of fun, Disclosure Day is uniquely fortified by the sense that he’s still searching for new ways to enrapture a jaded audience with his spectacle,” writes David Ehrlick of IndieWire.

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com writes, “This is a movie that reminds viewers that blockbusters can be morally and thematically complex while they’re entertaining the hell out of you.”

“Here’s the first disclosure, the one you might have been hoping for most. Steven Spielberg is back on magic-weaving form with what is probably his best film since 2002’s Catch Me If You Can,” says Nick Howells of the London Evening Standard.

G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “The movie has a boyish enthusiasm and a belief in itself that’s irresistible. Plus, it’s a cracking good thriller, powered by Emily Blunt’s terrific, multilayered, many-accented performance.

Clairsse Loughrey of the Independent writes, “This is exquisitely woven, capital ‘E’ entertainment, that’s funny and unabashedly sentimental in all the ways we expect Spielberg to be, with a particular action sequence primed to steal the breath out of your lungs.”

Featured image: L to R: Emily Blunt is Margaret Fairchild and Josh O’Connor is Dr. Daniel Kellner in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.