As a documentary, a piece of art, it’s really not that great. It’s one dimensional in a filmmaking sense, but critics are not who this is made for.

As a piece of documentary filmmaking it’s ham-fisted. Elizondo is at various points alternately the subject, the narrator and then even delivers a sort of lecture direct to camera. As far as serious journalism goes it’s a non-starter. I hope that those who are interested in getting to the bottom of these claims are able to recognise the obvious flaws of the film without letting their affinity for the subject matter get in the way.

Maybe they saw it and came to the realization that it's 99% rehashed information and a giant Lue Elizondo promo.

A critic's job is to be critical. And these types of critic/audience divides are not unusual. And the people who watch these types of movies are usually the ones that are already believers.

I'm going to wait until the price goes down. I'm not paying $20 to rent a movie ONE time. That's outrageous for a rental.

It's objectively not that good unfortunately. That doesn't mean audiences can't like it.

 These types of gaps are not unusual. What critics look for and what audiences look for are usually two very different things. Doesn't make it a conspiracy. 

And that's also a form of spritualism too. You replace God with the saucers and it's exactly the same as before. All must change so that everything can remain the same. The general merit of good films (not documentaries, as we haven't seen any tangible proof yet) about UAPs is that they stckl to what is a fundamentally technological and likely intelligent phenomenon, stripped of the consciousness/folklore/immaterial dimension that is pure unsubstantiated speculation. Everything else is deceptive and dishonest towards the people. So, while I don't think that Dan Farah's film has advanced the discourse on the phenomenon, it bears the merit of avoiding useless sensationalism. Personally, I prefer James fox's work.

Am i the only one that watched it and didn’t feel like it was anything special? I’ve seen YouTube videos that had more entertaining content than this

It's objectively worthless. Not a single part worth anything and still all these BLATANT PSY OP POSTS taking about it? Lol do better

They hyped this up way too much for just a bunch of regurgitated “trust me bro” stories

With due respect, you can live in both wonder and the scientific framework. Socrates famously said that wisdom begins in wonder.

The difference is most humanity is instinctually irrational. We believe things quickly for survival purposes without requiring the evidence to back it up.

The problem arises when we stop and get safe, and have more time to think about the more complex issues. In this instance, the untrained mind - which is the the vast majority of people - let’s say 92% for the sake of argument - falls back on the instinctual method of thinking. Belief without evidence.

When a mind is trained to think in a certain way - the rational, information-literate mind - then we start questioning everything.

At this point, there is still an absence of high-confident physical evidence to support the notion that we are contending with bona-fide extraterrestrial (or inter dimensional) beings. And no amount of interviews or arguments can replace physical evidence that is verifiable.

So, until the day that someone provides verifiable, concrete evidence, those of the population who are trained to think rationally, in an information-literate fashion, will continue to maintain their agnosticism on the topic.

I’m firmly in this camp. I want to believe, like Mulder, but without evidence I will remain an engaged and enthusiastic skeptic.

From a filmmaking point of view, it is very poorly done. The information contained within is irrelevant. It just jumps from one talking head to another with no real narrative through line. The best documentaries tell a story. If you were new to the subject, you’d probably be bored to tears within 20 minutes. The lack of visuals, whether reenactments, maps, CGI models, etc. really hurts the film. Guys in suits siting in chairs isn’t very engaging or interesting visually.

Well it sucked so there's that. It was quite literally no different than the 100 or so movies on prime on the same topic. The hype was obnoxious and it was the exact same, "trust me bro" horseshit the exact same folks have been rolling for years.

From a critical standpoint it's a bad movie. Not shot well, not build up to anything, not artistic in any way.

I don't think OP understands what a movie critic looks at when scoring movie.

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Movie critics see things from a different pov than a regular movie viewer hence that is why a lot of times there is a such disparity between the two scores. When you have a movie that has both high critic score and a high audience score, the movie is usually a golden one

It felt very MAGA-adjacent.

Which sucks because I love UFO stuff usually. 

I’d love to see it, but $20 is just nuts.

The only revealing parts was the explanation of the bubble theory, as a documentary not that gripping or well done

Why are upvoted and down votes disabled?

The problem is that if you would spend 20 bucks to watch a movie on streaming you are invested in that movie

I can't think of any from the top of my head, but I have often seen low RT scores for movies that I and many I know have really enjoyed...

I don't put much thought to RT scores, they are just one group and set of opinions, form your own :)

It’s a so so doc filmmaking wise, and Lue being heavy handed at times was I’m sure a bit cringe for the regular person/critic watching. There’s also the blaring fact that there is literally no proof at all in the film. It’s all trust me bro and speculation. Interesting for is and the ufo crowd kinda, but this doc did not prove or show anything of substance.

It was so boring. Nothing new. Same stuff total waste of time.

They put disclosure in the title yet there was none. I think over-all people are getting a little tired and and are beginning as much anymore to the fact that is is a ton of BS saying I saw this, that guy worked with aliens, we have proof of alien life yet we never get the truth. I have always been a believer but it is getting harder by the day. Maybe the Peru mummies will proof there were aliens alive at one time but maybe they don't exist anymore.

People who like UFOs love this movie because it’s great for a movie about UFOs; people who like movies don’t because it’s not a particularly good movie in, like, the history of cinema.

High-brow art culture operates within the same boundaries as scientific institutions.

Agree and I think that’s one reason for the disconnect. Many in the professional sciences (and to your point in the professional art space) are still deeply uncomfortable at confronting this topic and acknowledging the truth of it because science previously judged it to be nonsense. So first, there is some need to first accept that science heretofore had kind of gotten it wrong, and on a hugely important scientific question.

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The critics are all the bad ETs

To me it functions as a list of quotations strung together with a threat narrative. But I think just having a list of who's who and their brief statements is a needed doc.

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Wasn’t it mostly criticized for not showing proof or evidence?

Anyways I’m still heated at Marco Rubio intentionally trying to pour cold water on the momentum the doc was gaining when it came out. It has worked to an extent. That was definitely intentional and I was not surprised. I knew he was going to do that. I mean it’s Marco Rubio lol.

If he didn’t downplay the film and his statements in it, we’d definitely be seeing more coverage right now from CNN and Fox News for example.

Feel bad for folks like Grusch. Can’t watch a break and not enough of the general public care about this issue. They just don’t. I can’t count how many times people tell me they don’t care about aliens when I bring it up.

You have to keep in mind the critics are skeptics and the majority of the audience believed going in.

Only a certain type would pay the entry fee to watch this documentary. The public isn't going to rent something they think is nonsense. Critics have a job to review objectively as they can but keep in mind the general populaces interest in this subject..

Weird, I feel like it was holding with a higher score for a while.  Did a bunch of critics suddenly dogpile?

Cons: "too much (Lue Elizondo staring at) water 

-IGN prolly

Nah, but you've also consider the kinds of folks publications get to review docs. I saw that excellent American revolution one that came out recently get shredded by a couple places for being "too long". Which was the point because it's meant to be the most thorough to date docuseries on it lmao 

Sometimes ya just can't win. Glad the audience is enjoying AOD though! I had fun watching it with my younger brother who's just now getting into UFO stuff lol 

Brilliantly pointed out. I think also critics often have a big ego and ET landing is definitely going to shatter all egos.

Lol, seriously, does anyone really care a what a professional movie critic says anymore?

I wish someone like Michael Moore would have made a documentary about disclosure. Then again he would refuse to be used as a cheerleader for the Military Industrial Complex so I guess we'll never see such a documentary.

It was pretty good. A reminder, or a culmination, of how many serious people have weighed in on the subject.

I appreciate your point, spot on. I haven't seen it but I would definitely have predicted this outcome and I don't think this is where it's headed; it's been like this for around 30 years only stuff like Lu's Clues have raised expectations.

If tangible, reproducible effects cannot be studied using the scientific method, cynicism will be the default position.

I watched the film recently: well done, interesting array of talking heads, but very little new information. Plus, the film tried to cover too much territory—a new title card every 10 minutes or so. And too much of the film seemed devoted to defending Elizondo—a defensive tone that takes away from the really important stuff. Worth watching but, to me, not earth-shattering.

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It honestly was a bit boring and if you're in the UFO space it's nothing new.

It felt at times like Lue Elizondo's Imminent: The Movie.

I see Jay Stratton is about to release a book too...

The movie felt like a US government PR exercise where a collection of military/government good guys are going up against shady bureaucracy and revealing what's really happening, so that the government always comes out looking rosey.

I suppose all of this is part of the overall disclosure process but it's so sluggish and opaque and there is this continuous promise of 'more to come'. Everybody wants to reveal the truth but nobody wants to lose their pension or end up in solitary confinement in Guantanamo Bay.

In that sense the 'shadow government' black ops guys are still very much in charge of the narrative.

It’s massively self-selective for the audience. It’s like gathering 1000 Arnold fans and screening them Predator, of course you’re going to get a high score.

The people seeing this film are largely already heavily invested in the space and biased towards its narrative.

Whereas critics review it based on its merits as a documentary film, as well as the quality of the message it’s trying to get across, which given it doesn’t actually do anything, is pretty poor.

Is the general population giving it the 92%? Or is it UFO enthusiasts?

I haven't seen the documentary yet, but the authority figure never is going to be publically pro disclosure. There is financial interest and threat of ridivule attached with coming forward. If you look strictly at the evidence you already have disclosure. There cannot be a way that the phenomenon is a ellaborate psy ops across the entire planet by who knows with what purpose with programs like project blue book dedicated to make it fringe.

I guess what people mean by disclosure which authority actually has power over is the devices that they hold in hangars that could be actually studied if released to the public

Great entry level documentary. I enjoyed it, but there was nothing new in it for me. But if you are just getting into UFOs then this is a must watch.

Its kind of a useless "documentary", just boring to watch some guys saying trust me bro.

All these people should be confronted with their big announcements and soon this soon that. All the things that never came true, but kept the gullible believers hooked.

Critics aren't a big deal in 2025. You can't exactly make a living being a movie critic

Nothing new was released in the doc, it recycled info

I think this is a beautiful articulation of the situation, and what’s happening in culture more broadly, actually.

Lot of this information on other shows already. Wad good but only the bubble theory was new to me as an average ufo show viewer.

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I’ll watch it when it drops to free-99. No chance I’m paying twenty bucks for what looks like a soft-launch government narrative about aliens.

People who’ve genuinely experienced unexplained phenomena don’t need a glossy documentary to tell them what they saw. Meanwhile, highly produced ‘disclosure’ films blur the line between evidence, speculation, and performance, which is exactly how misinformation spreads. Once you wrap that in authority-adjacent voices from the usual (MAGA) suspects and cinematic storytelling, it stops being inquiry and starts being persuasion.

I’m not against investigating the unknown. I’m against being sold a narrative.

As long as the documentary is paid, the rating will be biased by people that are willing to spend money on a documentary about ufos.

For a UFO documentary, it's good, that doesn't mean that the critic documentary is not useful or that it will be convincing if you force an average person to watch it.

Pretty common audience/critic split ratio tbh. You didn't need to look for a smoking gun where there isn't one, especially when there's so many others burning away elsewhere.

Just an opinion. Subjective and means nothing. Critics often get paid to promote crap, so it probably works the other way too.

Who cares?

We have legitimate, verified government people looking into evidence on film and talking about their experiences.

The rest? That door doesn't have a lock on it anymore. In truth? The moment the SEC of State described the situation on film?

That was disclosure.

Any negotiations with the "others", will be through the State department in line with the UN.

A great documentary! Still leaves me with a pit in my stomach because I know the governments aren’t going to release what they know because they’re scared of the repercussions!

Good to get the regular people up to speed I guess.

This is why a single score is a bad way to rate complex media like films, when you really should have multiple axes.

10 critic ratings, 500+ audience ratings...

Ok now that I know that the critics didn’t like it I feel better about liking it 😂