Disclosure Day review: Steven Spielberg's UFO thriller ruined by eye-rolling ending

Steven Spielberg is no stranger to aliens. The Hollywood legend has made several movies about UFOs over the past half-century, from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET the Extra-Terrestrial to War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Now the 79-year-old is back with what feels like a spiritual sequel to the thrills of Close Encounters mixed with revelations almost as irritating as those at the end of his worst Indy adventure.

Nonetheless, Disclosure Day couldn't be more relevant. Over the last few years, the US government has released videos of UFOs in previously classified military videos. They appear as strange objects moving at speeds beyond our current technological capacity, often without apparent propulsion.

Last year, Dan Farah's fascinating documentary The Age of Disclosure featured interviews with former and current US government employees who gave eyewitness testimony about incidents and objects they believe are not of this world. Members of this disclosure movement claim that alien intelligence has been and continues to be present on Earth and has been covered up by the US government for decades. Spielberg's Disclosure Day is basically that: what if that is true, and the day is coming when the whole world will find out the truth?

The Crown's Prince Charles actor Josh O'Connor stars as Daniel Kellner, an Edward Snowden-esque cybersecurity whistleblower who's on the run from Colin Firth's Men in Black government suits. Hiding with his former nun girlfriend, a stack of classified footage and a "device", it's all very Indiana Jones chase, which shouldn't be surprising given that screenwriter David Koepp penned Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and this film's composer John Williams (94!) also scored that movie. On top of all this, Daniel is having supernatural experiences, as is Emily Blunt's Kansas City TV meteorologist Margaret Fairchild, who can suddenly read minds and speak every language, in a superb performance.

Much of the film is thrilling and mysterious (disturbingly so at times), as Spielberg whizzes the audience through beautifully executed sequences, including a death-defying train action scene, which is what cinema is all about. If anything, Spielberg's direction and Koepp's script give Disclosure Day an old-school disaster movie feel, like a movie from 25 or 30 years ago.

Thrills aside, the themes go deep, with former nun Jane wrestling with the theological implications of aliens being real and being disclosed to the world. The film asks many questions through some very explicit Christian imagery. Could humans handle this? Wouldn't we just worship them? What if - as Vice President JD Vance recently declared - they're not aliens, but demons?

Disclosure Day is also an incredibly sincere film without diving too hard into the sentimental. It's hard not to be emotionally gripped by it. I just wish the conclusions and ending (which I won't spoil) were more than what they turned out to be. After a strong two-thirds, it all felt somewhat unsatisfying, generic and didn't particularly urge a rewatch. I wouldn't be surprised if, sadly, like a number of Spielberg's latest efforts, this alien flick will be largely forgotten within a year. That is, of course, unless Disclosure Day really happens. But until then, I'd rather watch The Age of Disclosure again instead.

Disclosure Day is out in UK cinemas from Wednesday.