Steven Spielberg remains the blockbuster movie champ with Disclosure Day

NOTE: There are no major spoilers in this review, however, given how vague the Disclosure Day marketing campaign is, it’s worth noting this review does delve into specific character names and first-act plot points.

Disclosure Day begins immediately with fighting.

Steven Spielberg’s first* summer blockbuster since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull kicks off with point-of-view shots of some poor soul getting curb-stomped in a wrestling ring. The camera lingers on this skirmish long enough to feature the winning member of this match whipping out a folding chair to finish off his opponent. Who knew the director of Munich would ever channel the world of Cody Rhodes? That’s one of many surprises in store for Disclosure Day viewers, especially ones expecting a super typical wham-bam summertime thrill ride. Leave it to Spielberg to subvert expectations so superbly.

Nervously attending this wrestling match is Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor). Screenwriter David Koepp, channeling the Indiana Jones films, begins this man's explosive journey in media res. He's got some valuable information that's made him a target of the nefarious Wardex corporation (where he used to work) and its boss, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). Kellner's basically a Julian Assange/Edward Snowden figure determined to leak valuable information about the existence of aliens that Wardex is hiding. Unfortunately, that means he's now on the run with his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson).

Over in Kansas City, Missouri, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is trying her best to settle down into the city she and husband Jackson (Wyatt Russell) have recently moved to.  While performing her usual weather report at work, something strange happens to Fairchild. She begins speaking in a language nobody's heard before. It's not of this world. To boot, she's garnered some strange clairvoyant powers that make just looking at anybody a nightmare. Her and Kellner’s stories are about to unexpectedly intersect as Wardex targets them both.

As its marketing campaign has made apparent, Disclosure Day is a return to Spielberg's fascination with movies where aliens and human beings intersect. In execution, this filmmaker and Koepp also evoke one of this legend’s earliest works, The Sugarland Express, in being a Southern chase movie full of morally complex characters. To boot, the more contemplative and emotionally raw Disclosure Day elements hew this production closer to early 2000s Spielberg than Ready Player One. Thankfully, these disparate creative influences don’t render Disclosure Day a Spielberg clip show. Shadows of the past instead coalesce to make something excitingly new.

That idiosyncratic ambiance is partially established through supremely confident visual storytelling. Just look at an early sequence where Scanlon uses otherworldly tech to telepathically communicate with Jane. Spielberg, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, and the scene's two actors are sublime in conveying immense tension and how Scanlon is controlling Jane through dialogue-free terms. Through this unintrusive communication of how this tech works, the sequence’s critical characterization details can take precedent. It’s a dazzling set piece where so many artists (including editor (editor Sarah Broshar) fuse their craftsmanship together to create something riveting.

Disclosure Day’s relatively intimate scope also ensures that the tremendous cast assembled actually get to flex their chops. This isn’t a MonsterVerse movie where countless acting legends appear merely to provide reaction shots to CG beings. Colin Firth, for instance, is a terrific choice for the central adversary, while Colman Domingo absolutely commands the screen anytime he shows up. Leading the ensemble is Emily Blunt delivering one of her greatest performances ever. After being underwhelmed by her Smashing Machine turn last October, it’s wonderful to watch Disclosure Day and remember she’s still got it. Blunt proves exceptionally entertaining depicting Fairchild in eccentric motor-mouthed mode (it never gets old watching her immediately pivot from speaking in a foreign langauge to acting like nothing just happened).

She’s also equally commendable portraying this character’s most achingly vulnerable moments. That accomplishment especially shines in a post-chase sequence segment where Fairchild’s terror over what just happened and her long-held fears about her own health collide. In past titles like The Girl on the Train, Blunt’s portrayal of outsized torment sometimes came off as caricatured. Here, her acting is so specific to Fairchild and discernibly heartbreaking. It’s a tremendously involving burst of acting encapsulating the outstanding artistry Blunt brings to this role.

Pausing your summer blockbuster so characters can have mental breakdowns isn’t common. However, Disclosure Day is far more interested in exploring how humans react to the unthinkable than dishing out parades of bullets. That exploration also includes heavy theological elements, particularly when it comes to Jane. Spielberg’s E.T. (which featured a poster harkening back to The Creation of Adam) has long been perceived as a spiritual story. For his latest alien movie, this director has made those elements more explicit text. This includes characters talking about how the existence of aliens could upend religion and referring to otherworldly visitors in terms reminiscent of how certain religious refer to angels or God.

Between the religious material, an emphasis on empathy’s importance, and a jam-packed plot, Koepp’s script does sometimes suffer from being overly crowded. One element that needed more specificity in its execution is the stories backdrop involving multiple countries (like Russia and North Korea) being on the brink of war. In other words, the human world is crumbling just as a game-changing revelation could be on the docket. Occasionally, this apocalyptic development materializes through people clamoring for all items in a convenience store. Other times, Disclosure Day’s wider world seems normal, with the looming World War III prospect getting lost in the shuffle.

This and other gripes (like the finale relying a bit too much on narration and dialogue) are, thankfully, outmatched by what Disclosure Day gets so right. This includes the various zippy and exciting set pieces, which get a lot of mileage out of supremely creative camerawork. Spielberg and Kamiński refuse to keep the camera static or boring when Disclosure Day characters are just chatting on the phone. Naturally, then, they deliver truly lively camerawork when it’s time for a car chase or a tense sequence involving railroad tracks. The latter segment certainly had me wincing in suspense more than once thanks to the polished and immersive visual details.

Delivering stellar tension and chase sequences alone would be enough to make Disclosure Day a winner. However, what makes it special is its dedication to more intimate impulses. This even means eschewing the standard summer blockbuster third act emphasizing gunfire and CG armies clashing with each other. Spielberg’s camera is far more interested in chronicling humans connecting, like Margaret Fairchild seeing and emotionally healing others, or Ian Kessler comforting Fairchild during her most vulnerable moments. The unhurried execution of these displays of people bonding mirrors Disclosure Day letting beautiful images linger on-screen without intrusive exposition or self-conscious quips. Disclosure Day isn’t worried about looking “cool.” This creative team just follows their own grandiose impulses, which results in plenty of confidently striking imagery

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a wish fulfillment story about a man who gets proven right (aliens DO exist!) and is chosen to party with otherworldly lifeforms. War of the Worlds was about powerlessness while navigating unthinkable real-world tragedies (namely 9/11). Disclosure Day, meanwhile, sees Spielberg and aliens uniting for a parable about theological ruminations, unity, and empathy. The quality and artistry of past Spielberg bangers persist, but there’s plenty of fresh joys to uncover here. For one thing, did Close Encounters of the Third Kind feature wrestlers smashing each other with folding chairs? I think not!

*= Yes, Ready Player One exists but that was released in March. The BFG dropped in July 2016, but that was a PG-rated family film that wasn’t evoking Raiders of the Lost Ark.