First reactions to Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day have landed, and the early verdict from preview screenings is that the filmmaker has delivered one of his best movies in years. The Universal release, a mysterious UFO thriller about what might happen if humanity received proof we are not alone, is already drawing praise for Emily Blunt’s performance and John Williams’ score.
That response matters because Disclosure Day is Spielberg’s first new movie since 2022’s The Fabelmans, and the first public gauge of how his return to the UFO genre will play. The cast also includes Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, Wyatt Russell and Eve Hewson, but the early chatter is being driven by the film’s central pairing and the scale of what Spielberg is trying to do with it.
Critics who saw the film are using the kind of language usually reserved for a major event. Collider’s Steven Weintraub called it “another towering home run” and singled out Blunt as “incredible.” Slashfilm’s Bill Bria said it is “the weirdest movie Spielberg’s ever made,” in a complimentary way, while also calling Blunt’s work her most accomplished performance and Williams’ score one of the composer’s best in years. IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill went even further, describing it as “top tier Spielberg,” as exhilarating as Raiders but with the emotional texture and ambition of his later work.
Not every reaction reached the same peak. Polygon’s Jacob Kleinman wrote that Disclosure Day is “not the best Spielberg movie in 20 years,” even as he still called it good and said the bones of classic Spielberg sci-fi remain strong. That push and pull is part of what makes the first wave of reaction more interesting than a routine victory lap: some viewers are seeing a masterpiece, others a flawed but effective return, and both are circling the same thing — a film that seems to have surprised people who thought they knew exactly what a Spielberg UFO movie would feel like.
Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier called it Spielberg’s best film in 20 years and said Blunt delivers “an all-time character/performance,” while critic and journalist Simon Thompson called it “profound and deeply human” with a stellar Williams score. Tessa Smith, meanwhile, called it “absolutely phenomenal” and said she was hanging onto every word. For now, the film’s biggest unanswered question is not whether it made an impression; it is when audiences will get to see whether those preview-screening cheers hold up outside the first crowd.
