Former alien abductees Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor have to avoid the evil murderous secrecy corporation run by mastermind Colin Firth and hitman Henry Lloyd-Hughes and deal with their doubtful spouses (traitorous Wyatt Russell and loyal Flora) then journey to meet Colman Domingo at his Rehearsal house and deliver an extraterrestrial message to humanity.

Heavy influences from Steven’s other films: the alien ones plus A.I. and Minority Report, I am not kidding about The Rehearsal, the final moments of Lost in Translation, maybe some Arrival or Midnight Special in there. Nuns (led by Old Mattie of True Grit) take pains to tell us that alien existence is no big deal to Christianity. The first Hollywood movie I’ve seen in theaters this year, felt great to fall into the big screen and get caught up in adventure. But thirty years after Jurassic Park, it’s shocking to see the state of the CG creatures in this movie. I’m not talking about the aliens, but the fox and moose and especially the horrible cardinal who silently visits Emily, kickstarting her hidden alien memories/powers. I’ve seen the opening title sequence of Sparrow four or six times – don’t tell me it’s impossible to film a bird flying into a room, standing on a table, then flying out again (across multiple edits, no less), that it’s worth the time and expense and horrid visual outcomes to create a computer bird instead.