There are clear links here with ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, the first of Steven Spielberg’s great alien films, and with the conspiracy-driven sensibility that continued through ‘E.T.’ Yet ‘Disclosure Day’ lacks much of the mythical grandeur and childlike wonder that defined those earlier works. Instead, this is a film about the urge to expose the truth and prove that a cover-up has taken place. It becomes a race against time, with Josh O’Connor playing a cyber-security expert determined to reveal what the authorities are trying to suppress.

Alongside him, a Kansas City TV weather presenter, played by Emily Blunt, suddenly begins speaking in a language apparently used by extraterrestrials, adding another layer of mystery. But I wouldn’t say the film inspires much awe. There are effective suspense sequences – including one involving our protagonists trapped in a car pressed against a train while another approaches from the opposite direction – yet these moments generate tension rather than transcendence.

In many ways, the film is stronger at asking questions than providing answers, and that is not necessarily a weakness. However, the ending feels deeply anticlimactic. Unlike ‘Close Encounters’, there is little sense of spiritual or mystical revelation. Josh O’Connor’s girlfriend, a former nun, introduces questions about faith, but these are reduced largely to whether humanity has lost belief in God or simply lost faith in itself.

The film repeatedly hints that these particular individuals have been chosen for a reason. There are suggestions of psychic abilities and deeper connections to whatever is unfolding, yet the screenplay seems curiously uninterested in exploring them. It raises fascinating ideas only to move swiftly past them.

Even the visual effects occasionally disappoint. Some of the CGI animals feel surprisingly unconvincing, particularly in a film carrying Spielbergian ambitions. Likewise, for a conspiracy thriller, it never feels paranoid enough. This is especially odd given that Spielberg himself made films such as ‘Minority Report’, which excelled at creating a genuine atmosphere of surveillance and pursuit. Here, characters supposedly hunted by sinister government figures often evade capture simply by standing behind a tree or ducking around a corner. It undermines the stakes and occasionally tips into silliness.

There is very little of Spielberg’s old sense of wonder. Instead, we get constant movement and urgency in what is undeniably a fast-paced film. The focus isn’t really on the aliens themselves so much as on our capacity to be astonished by them and what their existence might mean.

In some respects, it also resembles Spielberg’s ‘The Post’ in its anti-establishment emphasis on uncovering hidden truths. Running alongside the extraterrestrial revelations is the threat of an imminent war on Earth involving North Korea, and the film poses an intriguing question: which story truly deserves our attention – the prospect of another human conflict, or definitive proof that we are not alone in the universe?

Ultimately, ‘Disclosure Day’ feels like a film yearning for the wonder of Spielberg’s greatest science-fiction work without ever quite achieving it. It is intelligent enough to provoke thought and entertaining enough to hold the attention, but it never delivers the transformative sense of awe that its subject matter seems to promise.