Occupation Rainfall - movie review

As a nerd I love a good scifi movie and a good movie is not necessarily a big blockbuster. I stumbled over the Australian movie "Occupation Rainfall" because it has two of my favourite actors in it Daniel Gillies and Jason Isaacs. 

Since I knew that this wasn't a Hollywood movie, I expected some nice entertainment but nothing huge in the sense of production value but I couldn't have been more mistaken. The special effects are fantastic and don't have to shy away from the comparison with big movies. The only thing that really bothered me in the technical department was the sound. I might have been due to the fact that I watched the original version on the German DVD of this movie and that they didn't put too much effort into the disc, but it was impossible to watch the movie with a fixed sound setting. I had to constantly readjusted the setting during the movie, which seriously diminished the experience.  

The movie is a continuation of "Occupation" from 2018, but a short voice over at the beginning of the movie makes it possible to follow the story without having seen the first part. Although the basic elements of the story (The last of humanity tries to fight off an alien invasion) are well known, it contains a few original twists and factors that keep the audience engaged, mainly that the lines between villains and good guys are blurred. Unfortunately, at times the story feels a little incomplete, as if they edited a few too many scenes out of the finished movie. Actually, this is a problem a lot of movies have these days, as studios seem to believe that the success of a movie depends on how many screenings they can fit in a day. One would assume that "Avatar" taught them otherwise. 

The cast is great in particular Daniel Gillies and Temuera Morrison, whose charisma and talent make them absolute scene stealers. Despite not being the lead actors, they manage to add depth and intensity to their characters every time they are on screen. Jason Isaacs as Steve the Alien is surprisingly funny and his character has great chemistry with Ken Jeong's "Bud Miller". They definitely deserved more screen time. Dan Ewing as the "Matt Simmons" unfortunately gets little to work with and therefore his character remains flat in comparison to the rest. Maybe if one has seen the first movie this impression is different. 

Occupation Rainfall is not an Oscar contender but it doesn't aspire to be one. It is a thoroughly entertaining science fiction movie, with a good cast, decent story and a great visual effect. If you watch it with the right expectation, you will enjoy it thoroughly. 

(6/10 points)  

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