Verdict
Summary
Competently made with some nice looking battle scenes and explosions, Occupation is much too similar in way too many ways to the T.V. series Falling Skies to get big points from me, but fans of alien apocalypse movies might like it for the same reasons they enjoy others of the same ilk.
Plot: A small group of town residents have to band together after a devastating ground invasion. As they struggle to survive, they realize they must stay one step ahead of their attackers, and work together for a chance to strike back.
Review: Aliens invade earth, and a small town in Australia is overrun with the armored invaders. At first, it’s a slaughter: the aliens use their weapons to subdue everyone, and their next order of business is to tame us by turning us into their slaves. Their purpose is to terraform the planet and make it suitable for living on. A small band of survivors retreat to the woods where they set traps for the creatures and create a sort of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest-esque existence for themselves. They keep the aliens at bay for more than half a year, but eventually their living conditions become too harsh and they must venture out for supplies, which is when their numbers begin dwindling after being picked off one by one by the aliens. With a pregnant woman in their group and an unstable leadership (their leader is a violent ex-con gone kinda good), they must make a stand and battle the alien forces or die before they even have a chance to fight back.
Competently made with some nice looking battle scenes and explosions, Occupation is much too similar in way too many ways to the T.V. series Falling Skies to get big points from me, but fans of alien apocalypse movies might like it for the same reasons they enjoy others of the same ilk. At 120 minutes, the movie is quite lengthy and ends up feeling like a miniseries. The characters are all textbook, and the conclusion is predictable. It needed some Tabasco sauce to be interesting. From director Luke Sparke.