If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This weekend, the truth belongs to seven billion people in Disclosure Day, the highly anticipated new UFO movie from the legendary Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg is one of the industry’s most successful and influential filmmakers. The top-grossing director of all time, Spielberg has helmed such blockbusters as Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones franchise and Jurassic Park.
Before Disclosure Day lands in theaters, the review embargo has lifted, and based on the first wave of verdicts, this is a must-watch. As we first reported on SFFGazette.com, critics are full of praise for Spielberg's return to sci-fi, and aside from the odd nitpick, it sounds like the movie is firing on all cylinders.
A Rotten Tomatoes score has also been generated. As we write this, Disclosure Day is "Certified Fresh" at 90% based on 92 reviews. Whether these positive reviews will lead to box office success remains to be seen, and it will face varying degrees of competition from holdovers such as Masters of the Universe, Scary Movie, and Backrooms.
Variety writes, "Disclosure Day feels like a thriller docudrama that’s too cut-and-dried about what it believes. The actors are quite good (especially Blunt, who makes you feel she’s seeing the uncanny), but for all the film’s slow build it doesn’t take us anywhere overly surprising."
However, The Hollywood Reporter counters, "For anyone who has loved his movies, Disclosure Day will be an essential addition to Spielberg’s rich body of work," as does Deadline, which concludes, "It is gratifying to see a so-called summer blockbuster, the box office genre Spielberg invented with Jaws, that has so much more on its mind than just to entertain."
GamesRadar+ states, "Steven Spielberg proves why he's the greatest blockbuster filmmaker of all time with a full-circle aliens-among-us thriller that dazzles as both a pedal-to-the-metal chase movie and a moving reckoning with the idea that we aren't alone in the universe."
The movie also gets the thumbs up from Empire. "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," the magazine's verdict enthuses.
IGN's review wasn't quite as glowing, but it still praised the movie. "Disclosure Day is vintage Spielberg, and even if it stumbles a bit at the finish line, it's still an original, big-budget science fiction conversation-starter from one of cinema’s all-time greats," the site explains.
The Guardian was full of praise, noting, "Disclosure Day is never anything other than entertaining and grade-A fun; rare enough in the movies or anywhere else, rocketing along with barnstorming set-pieces, exhilarating chases, funny lines and a career-topper of a performance from Blunt who may yet be morphing into a female version of Tom Hanks."
While the BBC declares it "a flimsy, outdated car-chase thriller with no ideas about aliens that we haven't heard before," USA Today posits, "Past and present are utilized in such a fascinating way as the filmmaker takes his premise to a logical, honest and heartfelt conclusion."
Back to the movie's box office prospects, and with a reported $115 million budget—as well as estimates of a $75 million to $85 million debut worldwide—there's every chance we're looking at one of the surprise hits of the summer here. Crucially, word of mouth from regular filmgoers will need to be as good as these early reviews.
The cast of Disclosure Day includes SAG winner and Oscar nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers), Oscar winner Colin Firth (Kingsman), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters) and two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man).
Disclosure Day is set to be released in theaters on June 12.