Occupation: Rainfall – Review

Occupation: Rainfall review; Australian sci-fi film

Occupation: Rainfall

Directed by: Luke Sparke

Runtime: 119 minutes

In his review of the alien invasion classic Independence Day (1996), Roger Ebert describes getting lost in plot minutiae and the complexities of extra-terrestrial motivations:

Independence Day is a timid movie when it comes to imagination. The aliens, when we finally see them, are a serious disappointment; couldn’t they think of anything more interesting than octopus men? If an alien species ever does visit Earth, I for one hope they have something interesting to share with us. Or, if they must kill us, I hope they do it with something we haven’t seen before, instead of with cornball ray-beams that look designed by the same artists who painted the covers of Amazing Stories magazine in the 1940s.”

Now, for all its faults, Independence Day remains—in this humble reviewer’s opinion—a good, even momentarily great, film. It’s a timeless example of ‘big dumb fun,’ a cinematic spectacle that gleefully skews to both sides of the big and dumb spectrum.

Strangely, the latter could also be said for Occupation: Rainfall, the big-budget sequel to Australian director Luke Sparke’s low-budget effort Occupation (2018). It’s certainly bigger in terms of size and scope, with city-wide destruction, descending fleets of alien command ships, aerial dogfights, and assorted high-octane chase sequences. And it’s also dumb—like, really, really dumb—overflowing with paper-thin characterisation, loose narrative threads, and an over-reliance on MacGuffin plot contrivances.

Sadly, however, Occupation: Rainfall isn’t great. It’s rarely a good film and fleetingly fun to watch. Think less Independence Day, and more Independence Day: Resurgence. And yet, when those brief, enjoyable moments do occur, they’re even more frustrating because they contain glimpses of a promising regional film’s wasted potential.

The film opens with Sydney under siege from an advanced alien horde. Expository intertitles inform us that over two years have elapsed since “Invasion Day” (more on that curious choice of words below), and our small country town resistance heroes from the original Occupation film are currently engaged in a daring rescue mission of captured civilians.

Matthew Simmons (Dan Ewing) leads the rescue mission, begrudgingly assisted by an alien defector, and reporting to new resistance leader, Wing Commander Hayes (Daniel Gillies). Amelia Chambers (Jet Tranter, replacing Stephanie Jacobsen) is risking life and limb to meet with other alien defector groups, in the hopes of negotiating for peaceful relations with the “Greys” and an end to the war. We’re also introduced to the competent Captain Wessex (Mark Coles Smith), an Indigenous foot soldier on the resistance’s front lines, who also acts as a new love interest for Amelia.

When the battle for Sydney is doomed, the resistance retreats into the hills of the Blue Mountains, where they have established a fortified base of operations and Commander Hayes is preparing to bring new weapons to the fight with the Greys. Simmons sets off on a side-quest, along with alien defector “Gary” (Lawrence Makoare) and Amelia’s younger brother Marcus (Trystan Go) to find traces of a new superweapon, code-named ‘Rainfall,’ that both the humans and Greys appear desperate to find. Meanwhile, Amelia and Dennis (Zachary Garred) take issue with Hayes’ treatment of Grey refugees at the new resistance base and set out to expose the horrible truth.

The main issue plaguing Occupation: Rainfall is one of narrative economy. The film crams so much into its two-hour runtime that it feels both bloated and meandering at the same time. Despite this, the first two acts are generally strong, with engaging action sequences and just enough expository dialogue to get a sense of what characters from the original film have been up to.

Matt and Amelia have split up after one of Amelia’s alien meetings ends with a suicide bombing attempt on their lives. Matt is scarred—both literally and figuratively—and has developed a deep mistrust of the Grey defectors. Amelia is determined to bring about peace but is continually shunned for her compassion towards “the enemy,” putting her at odds with the military response to the alien threat. We’re also reunited with Peter (Temuera Morrison) and Bella Bartlett (Izzy Stevens), who have retreated into the mountains to escape the fighting and return to normality, only to find that the horrors of war return with a vengeance.

However, the film’s third act drags on interminably, hampered by endlessly dull and repetitive fight sequences, muddled green-screen action, pointless surrenders, and double-crosses. Because of all the competing storylines, it also doesn’t help that yet more character introductions and expository monologues are needed for the third act reveal, with the last-minute comic relief duo of Ken Jeong and Jason Issacs as “Steve” falling flat.

Another issue is the tonal inconsistency generated by the film’s haphazard interrogation of tribalism and speciesism. By the end of Occupation, we see that through their capture some Greys were willing to switch sides and aide the human cause for liberation. The sequel makes a point of using its significantly larger VFX budget to show various alien species on the ground and as part of the refugee population. It’s certainly a compelling idea and one that the film stumbles over at every turn.

While the visual effects are mostly brilliant, comparable, or even on-par with big-budget Hollywood-fare, this noticeable decision begs some questions. Are the different aliens colonists? Or slaves? Why are they on the ground and not waiting for the war to end in the orbital motherships? Are they all “Greys”? If so, how does the alien hierarchy work? Why is “Gary” so eager to help Matt and other humans to fight, but also shoot and kill members of his kind? Most humans treat the Grey defectors and refugees with distrust, abuse, and outright scorn, so it’s not entirely clear what there is to gain from switching sides in the first place. To this end, the film has no interest in answering these questions, and consequently, its characters’ motivations suffer as a result.

However, even more concerning is the film’s apparent tone-deafness regarding Australian cultural heritage. Granted, Occupation started with a Ronald Reagan speech, featured literal flag-waving, and characters that monologed on how Columbus and Cook ‘discovered’ their respective colonies. For its part, Occupation: Rainfall appears happy to divide each side of the war into tribes—pro-human Greys, bad Greys, pro-Grey humans, bad Humans—and then say things like “Invasion Day” or have Australian characters deliver dead-pan stinkers like “We won’t let the invaders take our land.”

This presents two possible explanations. As writer and director, Sparke is aware of these themes and is attempting to incorporate half-baked messaging on unity through cross-species cooperation. Or, alternatively, Sparke isn’t mindful of this at all, and the film’s messy thematic resonance is entirely accidental. (For the record, I’m not sure which outcome is worse.)

Most of the above issues surrounding pacing, tone, and dissonant themes boil down to a lack-lustre script from Sparke, one that leaves otherwise exceptional actors like Ewing, Gillies, Morrison and Jeong with little to work with. This leads to the film’s sense of wasted potential. To see an Australian film of this magnitude and spectacle, produced by a mostly regional cast and crew, is incredible and something that should absolutely be encouraged for the future of Australian cinema.

However, the film’s success is ultimately let down by a weak script, forgettable and clichéd characters, and a genuinely exhausting third act. With the prospect of a home-grown action blockbuster franchise in the works, the chances of Occupation: Rainfall landing overseas remain marginal at best.

2 Comments

  1. looks like the reviewer did not get his back hander to say nice things—its a decent movie for a sat nite-yea bit much some parts but decent

  2. Hey dude. Completely agree with the third act. Holy fuck I just wanted it to end man. They really needed to trim down the narrative and hire a fucking editor. I feel like this entire concept would be better if it was less grand and blockbustery.

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