OCCUPATION: RAINFALL | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Luke Sparke (15, 128 mins)
A continuation of an Australian sci-fi saga that has plenty of CGI explosiveness but much familiarity as well, riffing on many films that have come before. Humanity is under attack from an apparently vastly superior alien force – in fact, Sydney is about to fall – and a plucky band of humans fight through low-budget albeit mostly well-realised pixels.
There’s tension between the grunts and the Greys, aliens who have changed sides to fight against the invading menace, but can these aliens be trusted? Dan Ewing’s rough-nut soldier thinks not, but when he and ‘Gary’ the Grey (Lawrence Makoare under prosthetics) are paired up to try and avert an even bigger threat from the aliens, Operation Rainfall, he soon finds out that they are closer to us than we thought.
Along their quest they find they have a stowaway, Marcus (Trystan Go), and chance upon horseriding hardman Temeura Morrison and his daughter Izzy Stevens, who help them on their secret mission. Meanwhile, Grey sympathizer Jet Tranter finds that the humans are just as bad at torturing the aliens as they are at torturing us and tries to fight their corner. Indeed, the fear of the unknown and alien racism parallels are front and centre.
The film barely stops for breath in its relentless mayhem: if it weren’t for the occasional F-bomb this could easily be Saturday morning kids’ fare, recalling a sci-fi action TV series like V or a Roger Corman-esque film from the 1980s. All the elements are present and correct: alien prejudice from Enemy Mine, human experimentation, groanable, misjudged ‘witty’ banter (a cameo from Ken Jeong and an alien voiced by Jason Isaacs), an alien queen and there are even lightsabre-esque battles. Characters remain sketchily drawn and tension absent as the film happily plunders from what has gone before in a cheesily brainless affair that fails to engage, despite showy histrionics and sequel baiting. An Australian Independence Day.
Released in cinemas and via digital platforms on Fri 9 July
words KEIRON SELF