The Objective

Love it or hate it, The Blair Witch Project is a film that put the "mature" back into modern horror. For a few years in the late 1990's, teeny-bopper fright films like Scream and Urban Legend were the only fear product in theatres, and serious scare pictures seemed to be a dying breed. It was then that this little-independent-film-that-could hit theaters, became a smash hit, and traditional horror was reborn.

Since Blair Witch's success, the directors of that film (Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick) have still mostly kept in the independent realm of filmmaking. Myrick's new film, The Objective, is a war-set horror tale in the backdrop of Afghanistan. While the elements of Myrick's debut are here--a common albeit supernatural setting and minimalist story ambiguity-- this time around the concept is disappointingly much better than the actual film.

The Objective's plot is set a few days after 9/11 and concerns a Special Ops unit that along with one CIA agent, Benjamin Keynes, come across a strange presence during a "meet and greet" mission to obtain an interview with a local spiritual leader in a territory occupied by the Taliban. It is believed the interview will help the military earn the trust of the common people in the future deployment. However, the insertion soon turns into something unexpected after they are cut off from outside contact. With dwindling water and supplies, the squad's numbers begin to shrink due to some unknown force. The question then quickly becomes: "What is their mission's real purpose?"

The faults in The Objective become apparent from the very beginning. The boring, lifeless, and generally unneeded narration by the character of Keynes is in the plot from the onset, and it exists probably to skim through information. Yet, it reminds one of Sarah Connor's narration in Terminator 2, but not in the way of increasing the mood, as it rather unjustifiably overlaps and deflates the story's surprises. Oftentimes, it even regurgitates what the audience can see on the screen or can rationally assume...and remember Afghanistan is a bad place for American Soldiers in case you did not know that after the many number of times it is mentioned here.

It is in these writing missteps that the movie greatly stumbles, although The Objective may get some things right in the classic tradition. The film honorably evokes a feeling of hopelessness and isolation even in the bright desert. The audience can feel that there's no where to go for these characters and it is apparent their plight will end in tragedy. It is these aspects that add a sense of impending doom as well as dire ominous to an otherwise clunky narrative.

With only passable acting, the characters are sadly thin and lack anything beyond traditional military motifs. The dialogue is minimalist in the way it only exists to serve the plot. This would be fine if the plot had more meat on its bones, yet instead it sticks to being rather mysterious. That aspect may seem to do its story justice in the thematic sense, yet the enigmatic plot does not bring anything new to the table. Many viewers have seen this type of stranded-characters-in-peril story before, even if it was in a different setting.

Therefore, the entirety of The Objective is a mixed bag, and one that never goes as far as it could with its premise. It is a film that may be watchable, but Myrick's sense of engaging aspects that he displayed so greatly in The Blair Witch Project, must have been extracted too soon, leaving nothing but the dust of missed opportunities in its wake.