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Back in 1999, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez struck indie gold with their innovative flick The Blair Witch Project. The subsequent success, which most people put down to luck and timing, left the two directors flapping in the wind for a couple of years due to backlash from the gimmicky nature of the film. Now the two directors are finding work, and while Sanchez has scored some indie success with his awesome film Altered, Myrick is still looking for some of that post-Blair Witch love. His latest film, The Objective, is close, but in the end it’s simply not a good enough story.

The film is about a group of soldiers who are stationed in Afghanistan. A CIA agent named Keynes is sent on a top secret mission to find a Holy Man named Mohammed Aban. Their mission leads them on a wild goose chase into some holy mountains… where typical environmental hijinks ensue. Compasses stop working, they start seeing weird lights, their satellite phone doesn’t work, and they lose all communication with their base. Matters get even worse when they start seeing ghostly figures in the night… and strange floating triangles. They must find what they’re looking for before they succumb to the tortures of the Afghani desert. It’s a stripped down plot that is perfect for an indie budget and a small cast and crew, as it mostly involves people walking through the wilderness looking uncomfortably hot.

Director Daniel Myrick is technically proficient and he takes advantage of some great mountain landscapes and a little bit of chemistry between his main characters. The main hiccup in Myrick’s work is that the story is too dry and boring to provide for much entertainment. On top of that, the film’s payoff is about as extravagant as Napoleon Dynamite’s payday after working on the farm for a day. The end is a blend of surrealistic bullshit and a cheap ass sequel setup which really disappoints.

The cast isn’t all that bad; they’re not the greatest, but they do their jobs fairly well. Kenny Taylor and Jon Huertas are the standouts of the cast as two soldiers who get sick and tired of Special Agent Keynes’ bullshit. Of course, the biggest flaw in the casting is that the main character is such an unlikable douche bag. Jonas Ball isn’t much of an actor, and it’s actually surprising that he was cast as the lead. The film could have been a little more solid with a lead character that didn’t bring the film down.

The special effects in the film are pretty solid and there are some great visual effects in the film. The bodycount is satisfying, even though some of the deaths are way too sudden. If you’re going to parse out a death every fifteen minutes, you should probably spend a little more time on them than just a brief flash of light and a random disappearance.

Overall, The Objective isn’t a terrible movie and with a move here and there, it could have been a watchable flick. In the end, it’s rather pointless and lacks any standout moments. This one is about as forgettable as the latest Judd Apatow flick.

Final Synopsis: The Objective has nothing that makes it great and it’s fairly generic. Skip it.

Points Lost: -1 for a terrible ending, -1 for Jonas Ball, -1 for not spending enough time on the deaths, -1 for being rather bland, -1 for pacing problems, -1 for environmental hijinks clichés,

Lesson Learned: People in Afghanistan love chocolate.

Burning Question: Was Alexander the Great friends with aliens?

The Objective
4/10

Tags: 2008, alien, aliens, daniel myrick, horror, horror movie, jeff prewett, jon huertas, jonas ball, kenny taylor, latest movie reviews, matthew r. anderson, michael c. williams, recent3, sam hunter