I saw this film available on streaming rental and all I could tell is that it was an alien invasion flick. A couple weeks pass and I’d hovered over the Rent button a half-dozen times… but then something triggered in my brain. I vaguely remembered a low budget alien invasion movie from a few years back. So I Googled it and, hey, Occupation: Rainfall is a sequel to that obscure indie alien invasion flick simply titled Occupation. Which wasn’t very good but at least showed some scrappy ambition, as far as my dusty memory could recall. So I hit the Rent button, figuring that, hey, if nothing else, maybe it’d be a fun schlock. And it kind of is… though better in many respects where the original film was bad… and worse where that film was decent.

Occupation: Rainfall, like the first film, takes place in Australia… two years have passed since a generic alien invasion was launched. Now its an all-out war with a bigger budget and a casual disinterest in recapturing the feel of the original. Our generic intrepid heroes are fighting for their lives when they discover plans to something called Rainfall… so a strike team is sent to figure out what that is while the remaining humans bunker down in their secret base to fend off the aliens.

This movie has a decent budget compared to the first film… or is made to look like it does. The visual FX of massive air and land battles, complete with fighter jets, big alien landing crafts, bigger explosions, etc. are decent… when they aren’t bad. There are a lot of night scenes to no doubt cover up their budget limitations. But, hey, they wouldn’t be the first FX-driven movie to play that trick.

I mention the FX first since this movie desperately wants to be a huge blockbuster epic to the detriment of anything else. The first hour is basically just a lot of LOUD NOISES and flashy explosions. There are characters and maybe I’m supposed to bring my memory from the first film but they barely register at all. Just Stoic Guy with Beard 1, Stoic Guy with Bears 2, Lady 1, Lady 2, Scrappy Young Guy, Alien Friend, etc. It isn’t for at least an hour into the movie before we get ANY character drama that has any emotional stakes. And you can forget about any clever dialog… at least until Ken Jeong inexplicably beams in from an entirely different movie. Yes, a little of that Ken Jeong magic will bring the international box office, I guess? <scratches head in confusion>.

Ultimately, this movie is just a bunch of loud noises and a light show… but I wasn’t too bored. I’ve certainly seen worse movies. Though it’s weird to say that the nearest touchstone is the equally inexplicable Skyline franchise and that does it better. But, hey, if you can enjoy low budget attempts at big budget noisy science fiction films, this movie might possibly float your boat. I ain’t saying its good and I ain’t saying it has interesting human characters or drama but I also ain’t saying it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen.

Score: 69