Disclosure Day

DISCLOSURE DAY 🛸 (2026)

If you had told me a year ago that my least favourite movies of 2026 would be a Star Wars movie and a Steven Spielberg movie, I’d have called you crazy. Yet here we are.

The formative cinematic experiences of my childhood were at home watching films like Jurassic Park, E.T., and Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg is foundational to so many film critics’ and film lovers’ lives. Unfortunately, the magic that defined his best work is nowhere to be found in DISCLOSURE DAY. 

What’s most disappointing is how generic and hollow it all feels. Like an "insert sci-fi, extraterrestrial story here" vibe. There’s little depth or nuance to any of the characters. They come across as rough sketches of ideas rather than fully realized people, and much of that falls on the script.

Josh O’Connor plays an Edward Snowden-esque figure whose entire personality revolves around being hunted. Emily Blunt does her best to carry the film with an emotionally committed performance, but the writing never gives her enough substance for us to genuinely invest in what lies beneath the surface.

The first two hours and ten minutes consist largely of characters asking, “What’s happening?” only to be met with, “We can’t say.” It’s a constant cycle of panicked reactions, vague warnings, and manufactured urgency. Then, in the final twenty minutes, the film finally unveils its grand conspiracy—one that never justifies the endless teasing, cryptic conversations, and dry run of inflated dialogue that the film drowns you in.

Circling a conspiracy, when done well, can give a film an air of mystery and build on your curiosity, but this film shows its hand so early that you’re just waiting for the inevitable reveal, which deflates any emotion or care you have for the barely existing through-line of this flatlined plot.

There are going to be people who love this film simply because it’s Spielberg, in the same way I tend to be more favourable to Nolan films, even if I retroactively feel like I might’ve reached hard to pull care out of something like Tenet or Dunkirk.

If I were to do the same in this case, I’d say this film exists as an allegory for outrunning your past and that being honest with yourself and those around you will free you from being captive to the pain you’ve endured. Or it’s simply knowledge being power, the truth shall prevail, or even that a common enemy outside of the human race could be the uniting factor we need in a period where we have become so divided.

To me, these ideas never evolve beyond surface-level themes. Rather than inspiring wonder or challenging the audience with a meaningful perspective on our place in the universe, the film settles for a familiar sci-fi premise and squanders the talent attached to it.

And as someone who typically enjoys Colin Firth, this was probably the most miscast role of his career. His dry, dreary character felt severely underdeveloped, and he did it no favours in his performance.

I would’ve been better off watching Knicks vs. Spurs and witnessing a real-life alien invade New York than overdosing on exposition-heavy monologues that go absolutely nowhere.

This film has been rightfully hyped leading up to its release, but it ended up being an uninspired misfire.

Steven Spielberg is an all-time great, but DISCLOSURE DAY is his all-time worst. 

Enjoy!

3/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 2hrs25mins

Where: In Theatres June 12th

The Richmond Reviewer Disclosure Day Review - June 9th, 2026.

#UniversalPictures #MovieReview #DisclosureDay #StevenSpielberg