First reactions have landed for Steven Spielberg’s mysterious UFO thriller Disclosure Day, and the early verdict from preview screenings is emphatic: Spielberg appears to have made one of his best films in years. The Universal release stars Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, and the first wave of disclosure day reviews is already turning Blunt into the story’s central talking point.
That matters now because Disclosure Day is Spielberg’s first new movie since 2022’s The Fabelmans, and early critical reaction is arriving before the film reaches the public. In the film, which explores what might happen if humanity received proof we are not alone, the reactions have focused less on plot mechanics than on the scale of the filmmaking and the force of the performances. Collider’s Steven Weintraub called it another towering home run, while IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill described it as top tier Spielberg. Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier went even further, saying it is Spielberg’s best film in 20 years, and Tessa Smith called it absolutely phenomenal.
Blunt, though, is the name that keeps surfacing. Bill Bria of Slashfilm called Disclosure Day the weirdest movie Spielberg has ever made and said Blunt gave her most accomplished performance. Simon Thompson called the film profound and deeply human and said Blunt is wondrous. Weintraub singled her out as incredible, and Lussier said she gives an all-time performance. Those are the kinds of early reactions that can turn a previewed film into an event before most moviegoers have even seen a frame.
Still, the first responses are not perfectly uniform. Polygon’s Jacob Kleinman said Disclosure Day is not the best Spielberg movie in 20 years or whatever people have been saying, even as he called it quite good and said the bones of classic Spielberg sci-fi are still strong. That keeps the praise from sounding like a press release and leaves room for a more measured reading once the film opens to a broader audience.
For now, the takeaway is simple: Spielberg’s return to the UFO genre is drawing serious attention, and Disclosure Day reviews have set a high bar for release. What remains unanswered is the date that broader audiences will get to judge whether the early enthusiasm holds when the movie leaves preview screenings and reaches theaters.
