A favorite directorial trademark among film fans is the Spielberg oner — a medium-length shot of maybe 30 seconds to two minutes that tells a scene in one continuous take, something a lesser director would cut into four or five separate set-ups.

Not only does this prove economically smart in the long run, but Spielberg’s storytelling style also shines through this choice because it puts the audience right into the scene, as if we’re all characters taking in the story with its heroes and villains.

Fewer than five minutes into Spielberg’s newest film, “Disclosure Day,” written by longtime collaborator David Koepp and based on an original story by Spielberg, we get the first of several oners that more than make the case that the nearly 80-year-old filmmaker still has it — starting in on a closeup of three people in the back of an SUV looking at screens, the camera pulls out the back of the vehicle to show a wide of the setting of a back parking lot before moving over and shooting an imposing figure in shadow through an open door window as we watch our hero exit a building and move down a ramp from a lit safety to a darker unknown.

As the fourth Spielberg movie about aliens visiting Earth unfolds, many of these thematic visual cues return — looking at people through windows and screens, battles between light (the known) and dark (the unknown) and shifting perspectives between what characters see… or don’t see. While each viewer’s mileage may vary when it comes to the script, the most successful director in Hollywood history has still got it.

One half of the story follows rogue cybersecurity worker Daniel Kellner (played by Josh O’Connor), who has just smuggled evidence of classified government experiments on alien captives out of Wardex, his secret corporation employer, and has threatened to share them with the entire world. Hot on Kellner’s heels is Wardex head Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), who is willing to do anything to keep these files hidden from the public.

Meanwhile, Kansas City meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is having an unusual day — she’s started being able to read people’s minds, talk in languages other than English that she never learned and even convince people that they’re speaking to the deceased loved ones. She’s also has the strangest sensation to find someone named Kellner after a mysterious man, former Wardex scientist Hugo (Colman Domingo), contacts her.

Although not nearly to the level of his best, earlier works, there are numerous scenes where Spielberg’s direction shines, making me wonder why the younger, less experienced directors don’t just do it this way. Especially when it comes to moments of tension, suspense, mystery and, for lack of a better term, movie magic, the things Spielberg is doing can’t be beat.

Of course, Spielberg is not doing this all on his own. His team of frequent collaborators — particularly composer John Williams (with him since 1974’s “The Sugarland Express”) and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński (with him since 1993’s “Schindler’s List”) — can do the things they do on autopilot. And yet, they still manage to give audiences moving, effective art that can entertain and inspire.

Of the main cast, Blunt is the standout, delivering arguably the best performance of her career. As her character’s past and purpose are unveiled, Blunt is asked to do a lot, from fluently speaking multiple languages she doesn’t actually speak to having a nervous breakdown, while also providing some of the best laughs in a mostly serious film. If only she were given a scene to sing and dance to, really showing what a triple threat she is.

While it’s great to have another Spielberg alien movie, especially penned by Koepp, the individual viewer’s mileage may vary on just how good the final complete package is. There is familiar territory here that can come across more as the director replaying his greatest hits rather than giving audiences something new.

On the other hand, “Disclosure Day” is completely lacking in cynicism, instead going for an undeniably optimistic tone and message that, at times, is too naively hopeful for its own good. However, with a storied and lauded career stretching 50 years behind him, Spielberg has earned the right to make the movie he wants, and it has enough of his magic touch in it to make it worthwhile.