Movie Review: Occupation Rainfall – Independence Day Meets Star Wars!

The best way to describe this film is would be Independence Day meets Star Wars. The influences are not only evident in the CGI display but in the actual story.

Writer and director Luke Sparke clearly is a big dreamer and he visualizes it well in this movie. It is chaotic in the action sequences almost so much that it might be difficult for some viewers to keep track of all that is happening. But it also dramatic and artistic if you are able to see beyond all the flashing lights, colorful aesthetics, explosions and mind-bending landscapes.

This film apparently is the sequel to 2018’s Occupation. The Australian Sci-fi action film has been scaled up tremendously in this sequel. Bigger budget allowing for much bigger practical and visual effects. However, you do not necessarily have to see the first installment before you can enjoy and appreciate this sequel. On its own, it works at keeping you entertained and absolved into the world it presents. But it happens that a greater part of the story and its characters and their relationships with each other might have been shown in the first part so it would help if you get to see that before diving into this.

Basically, in Occupation: Rainfall a hostile alien force has invaded earth and taken over most part of it. It has been two long years already. The survivors in Sydney Australia have formed a resistance that is desperate are riding earth of its alien invaders and restoring things to normal. the resistance and their unexpected allies uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind.

Interestingly, it is not just aliens versus humans throughout. There are some aliens have switched sides are helping the human resistance. Also, there are some other humans who are surprisingly also fighting against the resistance.

Occupation: Rainfall is not just light sabers and laser beams, there is a much more humane side to it that can be easily lost in all the chaos. But it is right there laced in the dialogue and the few times that the characters are actually allowed to interact with each other. The story attempts to delve into humanity are our desire for power and war, or greed and our need for violence even if it’s at the detriment of our existence.

There are few moments that these underlining themes are brought to the fore by the characters. But a lot of this would be hard to miss by many viewers.

Either which way, you are guaranteed a full throttle experience that does not only leave you wanting more but convinces you that Occupation: Rainfall can compete with any big budget Sci-fi movie it is matched against.

The film packs a good bunch of acting talents, with some impressive resumes. But you might not watch this film for the acting. You certainly are going to be focused on the visual display that this blockbuster has to offer.  From the visual effects, sound design and costuming, you would think that this film is an already existing franchise that you didn’t know about. Either which way it has the markings of becoming a huge franchise spinning out not just several sequels and standalone stories but also video games.

It has hard not to make that comparison with other films of its kind. Besides it is not like anything we haven’t seen before over and over again. What makes this stand out is the fact that it is not made by Hollywood yet it does look and feel like it is backed by any of the major film studios that are known for making this kind of movies.

I would score Occupation: Rainfall 6.5/10. There is never a dull moment here. It is high octane fast paced from start to finished. Through all the action you are likely to miss a few key details if you lose attention even for a moment.

Occupation: Rainfall is currently available on and a number of digital and cable platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Video, Netflix, Vudu, Comcast, Spectrum, and Cox. You should certainly check this out if you are a lover of the Science Fiction genre.