DesertThrottleDiaries@DesertDiaries
I watched this, so you don’t have to.
Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is a bloated, embarrassing mess that squanders every ounce of goodwill from his past alien films. He used to make great films -
I’m pretty sure he just phoned this one in.
At two and a half hours it drags like a corpse through a desert of empty chases and half-baked conspiracy nonsense. Daniel steals alien files from some secret government outfit, goes on the run with his girlfriend, while meteorologist Margaret suddenly develops psychic powers from a bird and starts babbling alien gibberish on live TV. They team up with whistleblowers to broadcast the “truth” and stop World War III.
The plot is flimsy and predictable, recycling every tired government-cover-up trope without tension or surprise. Scenes lurch forward then stall. Characters hide, get chased, hide again. Antagonists miss obvious chances to shut things down. The big “Disclosure Day” climax arrives with all the impact of a wet fart. some grainy footage, a couple speeches, and then… nothing. The promised revelation is anticlimactic garbage.
The writing is worse. Dialogue is stiff, hokey, and endlessly preachy. Characters deliver long, polished monologues about empathy, truth, and humanity’s place in the universe instead of actually doing or feeling anything. It’s the kind of fake profundity that makes you check your watch. Koepp’s script trips over its own explanations and leans on contrivances that don’t hold up for five minutes.
The CGI is outright shameful. The film’s central visual idea involves animals tied to the aliens, and those creatures look like cheap video game assets…stiff, obvious, and completely immersion-breaking. They yank you out of whatever thin atmosphere the movie manages to build. For a Spielberg production in 2026 this is pathetic.
Characters are barely there. Josh O’Connor’s Daniel is a blank reactor with no personality. Emily Blunt tries hard but can’t sell the psychic meteorologist savior nonsense. Colin Firth feels miscast as the villain. Side players exist only to deliver exposition or get conveniently out of the way. Nobody feels real or worth caring about.
It’s bad. Skip it.
