This image released by Universal Pictures shows Colman Domingo, from left, Tommy Martinez, Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor in a scene from "Disclosure Day." (Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment via AP)

Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” is about an intense, supernatural attraction between a government worker named Dan (played by Josh O’Connor) and a TV meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), who share a Gate Master/Gate Keeper need to get together.

There’s also Jackson, Margaret’s baffled boyfriend (Wyatt Russell), and Scanlon, the head of a top-level government program that holds the biggest secrets in the world. These characters spend most of the movie running around Kansas City, using weaponized extraterrestrial technology and racing to unveil the truth about the existence of little green men.

It gives me no joy to bash the new film of a director who is among the greatest storytellers in cinema. “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2001), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) and “Hook” (1991) are among my favorite movies, as are the director’s masterpieces on real-life horrors, “Schindler’s List” (1993), “Munich” (2005) and “Amistad” (1997). Mr. Spielberg made me believe a child could ride a bicycle across the sky, but I never bought a minute of “Disclosure Day.”

Spielberg, easily one of my favorite filmmakers, turns 80 this year and has made a weird, naive film as out of touch and dated as the use of a Gwen Stefani song in the first act.

Apparently still envious over the mega success of “Independence Day” (1996), the cockamamie screenplay by David Koepp (with the story credited to Spielberg) has the same set-up as the now 30-year-old (and still wonderful) “ID4,” and plays like a sci-fi passion project from someone who has never heard of or seen a single episode of “The X-Files.”

None of the characters have any depth, but Firth is especially miscast as the chief antagonist (there isn’t a single hint of menace in his eyes). The villains, despite knowing all the angles of E.T. weaponry, behave in ways that rarely make sense.

A key flashback shows two children being abducted by aliens and plays like a barely hidden metaphor for repressed child abuse, which contradicts the film’s message for “empathy” and the film’s depictions of aliens being victimized by humans. Wait, are we supposed to love these terrifying monsters or blast them out of the sky?

Minor spoiler: the film’s central notion of broadcasting footage of real UFOs and extraterrestrials to wake up the planet is especially foolish. I often see CGI and AI “leaked” footage on Facebook and Instagram that is more persuasive than what is in “Disclosure Day.” Getting this footage online wouldn’t change anything.

Despite all the chase scenes, the story literally circles back to where it started, which wasn’t the case with Spielberg’s masterpiece and, yes, his best film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977).

The Koepp/Spielberg screenplay is proof positive that these two are powerful enough to get any movie produced.

To think what Chris Carter could have done with this. Actually, I can, as “The X-Files: Fight the Future” (1998) is still paranoid sci-fi summer movie perfection.

“Disclosure Day” also borrows a lot from “Minority Report” (2002), which also features a clairvoyant female lead using her psychic powers to escape ICE-like henchmen who have the world under surveillance. Spielberg’s 2005 “War of the Worlds,” a much darker film about humankind and first contact, is a much preferable alternative.

Blunt’s performance is initially the film’s best special effect, as her character demands a lot of the actress, but her tour de force eventually becomes a look-at-me showcase that matches Jessie Buckley’s please-stop-acting-we’ll-give-you-an-Oscar-already turn in “The Bride!”

Spielberg wants his new film to mirror the world we live in, but his efforts are sheepish, as “Disclosure Day” never fully addresses the loaded topics it brings up. The already controversial aliens vs. religion debate, made literal in a supporting character’s crisis of faith, never goes anywhere, winding up as something of a draw.

Once “Disclosure Day” finally stops spinning its wheels for 2.5 hours and unveils the aliens, it’s a Crystal Skull-sized bust. However, let it be noted that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008) is still a much better movie.

(1.5 out of 4 stars)

Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawaii Maui College.