Great filmmakers are great storytellers, managing to make the most incredible tales seem credible.
At the age of 79 and with 35 features under his belt, no-one would dispute Steven Spielberg is a great filmmaker.
'Jaws,' 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' 'ET: The Extra Terrestrial,' 'Schindler's List,' 'Jurassic Park,' 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Munich,' 'War Horse' and 'The Post' are testament to that.
But even if you look at Spielberg movies that don't quite hit those heights like 'Duel,' 'Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom,' 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' 'Empire of the Sun,' 'Catch Me If You Can,' 'Minority Report,' 'The Terminal,' 'War of the Worlds,' 'Ready Player One' and 'The Fablemans,' they are all work that other directors would love to have on their CVs.
Arguably only Martin Scorsese has gone toe to toe with Spielberg as a great cinematic storyteller.
But even he hasn't displayed the same versatility as the Cincinnati born director who for six decades has jumped from blockbuster action adventures to remaking a classic musical, delivering mesmerising sci fi talws to directing quirky romcoms, tough war movies, intense family dramas, historical dramas and taut political thrillers.
There's something comforting, though, about seeing him return to the type of blockbuster that helped make his name - the big budget, magical sci fi adventure.
Spielberg's latest film 'Disclosure Day' is that kind of movie and feels like the third leg of a UFO trilogy that began with 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' in 1977 and then smashed box office records in 1981 with 'ET: The Extra Terrestrial'.
'Disclosure Day' has the same sense of wonder that pervaded both movies and also a strong blend of action adventure and real heart.
Josh O'Connor plays Daniel Kellner, a cybersecurity expert who like Richard Dreyfuss' Roy Neary in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' has become obsessed with uncovering the truth about life beyond Earth.
Daniel's obsession has brought him into direct conflict with Colin Firth's Noah Scanlon, the CEO of a US Government backed corporation that has been burying secrets about extra terrestrial contact with humans.
An employee of the firm, he's downloaded hours of archive video footage but also has in his possession a powerful extraterrestrial device obtained by humans through alien encounters.
Scanlon wants to suppress both the footage and the device, believing US citizens already panicking at the prospect of World War Three involving North Korea wouldn't be able to cope with evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Kidnapping Daniel's girlfriend, Eve Hewson's Jane, Scanlon arranges a trade but he and his right hand man, Henry Lloyd Hughes' Caspar Boyd are outwitted.
And so a pursuit begins to track down Daniel and Jane, with Scanlon, Boyd and members of the Wardex Corporation stopping at nothing to prevent from getting out into the public domain the information they have guarded.
Behind Daniel's efforts to reveal the truth lies a puppet master, Colman Domingo's Hugo Wakefield who also worked for Wardex and has a masterplan for revealing it all.
But the key link in the chain is Emily Blunt's Kansas City news station meteorologist Margaret Fairchild who has latent powers that suddenly come to the fore when a red cardinal bird flies into her kitchen before she heads into work.
The encounter unlocks her powers and suddenly Margaret is able to immediately sense what's troubling anyone around her even if they are complete strangers.
Margaret uses these powers to empathise with people and help them.
She can also speak any language with great fluency.
Unnerved by the way she has acquired of these abilities, she stuns viewers during a broadcast by suddenly speaking in a strange tongue that only Daniel can understand when he sees the footage.
Determined to bring Margaret and Daniel together, Hugo tries to orchestrate an encounter.
But will Scanlon and his Wardex goons stop them?
Working from a screenplay by David Koepp of 'Jurassic Park,' 'Carlito's Way,' 'Mission Impossible' and 'Black Bag' fame, you can't help but feel in any other directors' hands 'Disclosure Day' would be dismissed as ridiculous old guff.
But Spielberg is such a masterful storyteller, you find yourself ignoring some of the plot holes and just being swept along by the magic of it all.
Following pretty similar beats to 'Close Encounters,' the film hurtles along at a frenetic pace most of the time, occasionally stopping to take in some moments of wonder.
The movie features a nerve shredding action sequence featuring a train and a car that few films will be able to match this year.
But it also helps that the cast are top drawer.
O'Connor makes for an engaging lead and Firth is perfect as the arrogant, snarling villain.
Hewson turns in possibly her best work to date as a character who harbours a secret of her own which is revealed early on and who subsequently finds herself grappling with the implications of what evidence of extra terrestrial contact means for her beliefs.
Domingo is wonderfully cast as a scientist determined to reveal the truth and who still has faith in his fellow humans.
But it is Blunt who steals the show with a dazzling portrayal of a woman who is overcome by her newly acquired powers and who struggles to comprehend why she is pivotal to the truth coming out about extra terrestrial contact.
After three decades of formulaic superhero, car, monster, video game and sci fi franchises milked to death by the studios, there's something delightful about seeing a genuinely original, old school blockbuster hit our screens.
'Disclosure Day' may not rank with the very best of Spielberg's work but it is entertaining nonetheless.
It has enough depth to keep you mulling over its themes.
There's some dazzling cinematography from Janusz Kaminski and breathtaking visual effects.
There's a rollicking John Williams' musical score.
But it's Spielberg's valuing of empathy that really hits home as we cope with an increasingly hard, cynical world driven by tech titans who seem only to chase profit.
Spielberg lays down a challenge to us all in the final line of the movie.
The next three years will tell, though, if we're really listening.
('Disclosure Day' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 10, 2026)
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