(Director’s Cut)

“If everyone’s ready here on the Dark Side of the Moon… play the five tones.”

It is obviously too late to go through Steven Spielberg’s entire filmography before Disclosure Day releases, but I wanted to check out some of his science fiction works that I hadn’t previously seen beforehand. Adding to that, there seems to be plenty of speculation around the trailers for Disclosure Day, and how it might possibly tie into Close Encounters, so that had me more curious than I already was to watch it. I do have to say I was a little worried going in, though, as this clocks in at almost two and a half hours long.

And after having finished it, I think I can definitely say that one of Spielberg’s many talents that is the most prominent here is how he gives off this sense of spectacle and wonder. The first and third acts especially really impressed me with how he portrayed humans encountering extraterrestrial life, and not only did it have this sense of wonder, but there was also quite a horrifying nature to it all that really kept me intrigued. Honestly, I don’t really know what I was expecting, but the UFO scenes in particular really surprised me, in a very positive way. I can definitely see why this was a big deal when it was released, as it avoids a lot of the clichés of UFOs, aliens, and all that sort of stuff.

Unsurprisingly, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is also an extremely striking film visually. Its special effects, while not quite on the same level as a movie that released that same year, being Star Wars, are still way ahead of their time, nonetheless. Watching this in 4K in 2026, they still hold up quite well and are mostly believable, though that’s not even really why they stood out to me. What stood out to me about the visual effects wasn’t the overall quality of them; it was the imagery itself. The UFOs are unlike any other UFOs that I’ve seen in a movie before, with some really unique and interesting designs, and very, very vibrant colors that are definitely going to make them stick with me.

The ending is quite effective as well, something that I heard was ruined by the special edition, which is why I chose to watch the director’s cut instead. The story comes to a definitive close, but also leaves a lot of questions too, something that I really liked because I think science fiction movies like this shouldn’t really give you answers to everything. That being said, do I think the ending was a rewarding experience based on how the story got there and how long it took? Well, unfortunately, not really.

That’s where Close Encounters really struggled the most, in my opinion. The first and third acts are really good, but the middle drags a lot, and like most movies, the middle act is the longest. The story centers around Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, a man who encounters a UFO towards the beginning of the movie and decides he wants answers. Everything starts off really promising, as I was intrigued by the UFO scenes, but it gets to a point where something big happens between another character named Jillian and her son (something I’ll elaborate on more soon - no spoilers obviously), and the movie quite literally just comes to a standstill, draining all the excitement that it had built up beforehand.

A lot of the middle act is devoted to focusing on Roy working on figuring everything out, as well as how his encounters have affected him, which have also, in turn, affected his family. Something like this could have been really interesting, but ultimately it ended up feeling like a bit too much to me. There wasn’t really ever a sense of connection between him and his family that I felt at the start, so when all the drama started, I simply didn’t really care all that much or feel anything.

This leads to my next negative, being the characters. Out of all the Spielberg movies that I have seen so far, characters have absolutely never been a problem, but here they sure are. The two main ones are the two that I previously mentioned, Roy and Jillian, and neither of them was compelling in the least bit. First off, when you get that big moment between Jillian and her son, it seems like something that should be really huge to her, but she never seemed like she really cared after, let’s just say, “that event,” which automatically created this really big disconnect for me. What also doesn’t help with her character is that the actress who played her, Melinda Dillon (the mom in A Christmas Story), gave an incredibly lackluster and emotionally empty performance, to say the very least.

When it comes to Roy, he’s simply just bland. While he’s not a main character that I actively disliked, he did absolutely nothing whatsoever to win me over, either. By the end of the movie, he’s honestly not a good person. He doesn’t treat his family right and is so caught up in this matter of extraterrestrial life that he neglects quite literally all other aspects of his life. Richard Dreyfuss gives a perfectly fine performance; the writing just failed him pretty miserably.

The last major gripe I have with Close Encounters of the Third Kind isn’t so much something that is a negative when it comes to quality or anything of that nature; it’s just something that kind of put me off a little bit. With this, I’m not going to be talking about any specific spoilers, but it also wouldn’t take much thinking to be able to put two and two together, so if you haven’t seen this film, I’d recommend going to the next paragraph. Anyways, adultery, particularly when it’s glamorized or glossed over, is something that always really bothers me. This could totally just be me, but I almost got the sense that the story almost treated the two “as if they were meant to be.” Adultery is just one of those things presented in movies that is always and forever going to hinder my experience with a film; the only time it wouldn’t is if the story actively made it seem like a wrong thing.

The final thing I’ll say in my review is that, like most movie fans, John Williams is my favorite composer of all time. Every time I am about to watch a movie that was scored by the man, I always have even just that little bit of extra excitement just to hear something from him that I haven’t heard before. The score for Close Encounters is far from bad, but it was also heavily underused and a little underwhelming in my opinion. So, anyway, this isn’t as much of a negative as it is something that disappointed me; I just wanted to mention it real quick.

Close Encounters is honestly one of those frustrating films for me, because I see it as a movie I would have loved if there were only just a few tweaks to it. It’s just too long, and the characters aren’t nearly interesting enough. Now, does it have its moments? Absolutely, they are just a little few and far between considering how long the movie is.