Disclosure Day movie review: The truth is trying to get out there in Steven Spielberg’s return to alien genre

Steven Spielberg knows how to give his audiences a good time.

Even when he’s made more “serious” films such as Amistad or Lincoln, he has never lost his ability to entertain. Whether it’s Jaws, the Indiana Jones movies, Minority Report or Catch Me If You Can, you know that the master of popcorn cinema has you in mind.

Recently, Spielberg, like many of his peers, made a full-throated defence of the cinema experience, arguing that by making time and going to a theatre infers a significance to the undertaking. It’s not a throwaway act like streaming something forgettable at home.

And a new Spielberg movie is not a blip. Even in his sixth decade as a filmmaker, with 37 features as director, Spielberg is going to do all he can to deliver what he promised.

With Disclosure Day, that’s thrills, action set-pieces, solid visuals, great performances and a little provocation about one of his favourite cinematic topics: aliens.

There’s no question in Disclosure Day as to whether they exist, they do. The dramatic conflict is whether its characters will succeed in bringing the truth to the public or if the shadowy forces that have obscured these facts will win out.

The truth isn’t out there, but it’s trying to be.

The broad strokes are that there is a corporation called Wardex, which has spent decades covering things up for the US government. Inside the organisation, a break-away faction led by Hugo (Colman Domingo) has stolen reams of data that will convince any sceptic.

One of his lieutenants is Daniel (Josh O’Connor), a genius cybersecurity expert who is already on the run with his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson), pursued by a parade of black four-wheel drives and men with headsets being directed by Wardex boss Noah (Colin Firth).

Separately, Margaret (Emily Blunt) is a weather presenter in Kansas City who has a strange stare-down with a red cardinal bird and now can speak Russian and Korean, and know everything about everyone she locks eyes with.

More than that, she starts speaking in a clicking tongue during a live broadcast. There will be rain bombs as well as truth bombs.

Margaret and Daniel’s paths are destined to cross as Hugo gears up to share what everyone should know.

Disclosure Day takes a little settling in before it starts to feel like more than an episode of The X-Files, but it doesn’t take long. Because the film drops you into the action without an explanation, it does feel, at first, like a cold open from a Mulder and Scully adventure.

Then Spielberg does what he does best, which is to pull you into his story and immerse you in an experience. He has been consistent when some of his contemporaries (ahem, Ridley Scott) no longer are.

The film is essentially a chase movie in which O’Connor, Blunt and Hewson’s characters are constantly trying to outrun Firth’s villainous roadblocks, which also involves some remote mind-melding shenanigans.

But it’s an exciting chase which moves from location to location and also involves a moving train. It’s thrilling stuff. You’ll be captivated.

Is Disclosure Day a little bit goofy? Absolutely, it’s hard not to be when it comes to the subject matter, and especially when there is a crop circle and animals who make intense eye contact.

Even though Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds) are approaching it with all seriousness. That earnestness feels very Spielbergian, and it’s why it works. He’s not trying to bump you out with a wink-wink.

There is something of a philosophical denouement that beats with a big heart, and if you find yourself tearing up, as overwhelmed as the characters on the screen, you’ll know it’s because Spielberg is so good at stealthily laying foundations that pay off later.

Disclosure Day is classic Spielberg popcorn – it has heft, sure, but it is mostly about being along for an entertaining ride.

Rating: 3.5/5

Disclosure Day is in cinemas on June 11