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DVD Review: Ambitious ‘The Objective’ Sustains Interest, But Ultimately Fails
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CHICAGO – While adult comedies continue to rake in the big bucks at the box office, adult dramas continue to plunge in popularity, particularly dramas centering on the war in Iraq. When a brilliant edge-of-your-seat thriller like Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” or a galvanizing documentary like “Taxi to the Dark Side” can’t even manage to find an audience, a tiny horror picture like “The Objective” doesn’t stand a chance.
![]() DVD Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
“The Objective” opened in a few theaters earlier this year, performed badly, and has now been unceremoniously dumped into stores. Not an impressive feat for “The Blair Witch Project” co-director Daniel Myrick. At least the new film by his “Witch” partner, Eduardo Sanchez, was chosen for the latest “Ghost House Underground” collection.
The Objective was released on DVD on October 13th, 2009.
Photo credit: IFC Films
But while Sanchez’s “Seventh Moon” was a boring misfire, Myrick’s “The Objective” manages to sustain interest throughout, before copping out at the end. Both Sanchez and Myrick aim for documentary-level realism in their stories, which are always about frightened characters badly navigating their way through desolate landscapes, while being pursued by a mysterious threat that has its roots in folklore. But while “Moon” used the same jittery camerawork and improvisational style that gave “Witch” temporary distinction, “Objective” looks and feels like a standard war movie. For the first half hour, Myrick’s tale seems straightforward enough: CIA operative Benedict Keynes (Jonas Ball) leads a U.S. Special Forces squad on a top-secret mission into dangerous Afghan territory, just two months after 9/11.
![]() The Objective was released on DVD on October 13th, 2009. Photo credit: IFC Films |
When the troops encounter enemy fire, they shoot their distant attackers, but later can’t find their bodies. The ear-splitting noise of a chopper hovers directly above their heads, but no aircraft can be seen. Two lights (presumably belonging to an approaching car) are seen moving down a road before splitting off in opposite directions and flying into the night sky. Are the soldiers hallucinating? No one seems to have a better answer, except Keynes, who keeps his thoughts to himself, spelling them out in voice-over, while withholding plot secrets until the climax. Keynes’ distracting narration is one of the film’s biggest flaws, partly because it interrupts the tension while overstating themes, and partly because Ball delivers his lines with the jaded monotone of Edward Norton in “Fight Club”, minus the scalding wit (I kept waiting for him to mention Tyler Durden).
It’s also a shame that Myrick relies so heavily on unconvincing digital effects and Kays Al-Atrakchi’s intrusive score during sequences that would be more effective without them. The best scenes involve the soldiers’ baffled reactions to phenomena that are beyond their comprehension. This is where the fresh-faced cast members are allowed to shine, and their group dynamic is credible, even if some of their dialogue isn’t. Myrick succeeds in building eerie tension during his simplest set pieces, utilizing imagery that occasionally evokes the UFO sightings in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” But once the convoluted “threat” is explained in the final act, Myrick’s film ultimately becomes more frustrating than frightening.
“The Objective” is presented in its 1.78:1 aspect ratio with an anamorphic widescreen transfer that accentuates the elegant detail in Stephanie Martin’s award-winning cinematography. The disc includes interviews with Myrick and Martin, as well as a “making-of” featurette that sheds light on the filmmakers’ attempts to achieve realism with the assistance of military advisors. Myrick admits that he was partly inspired by stories of “modern-day ESP” used in the military, which are further explored in Jon Ronson’s book (and the upcoming film) “The Men Who Stare At Goats.” Myrick’s film is not a complete failure, and its subject matter is promising enough to be adapted into a better feature, but as it stands, “The Objective” basically amounts to “The Men Who Stare at Flashy Lights.”
By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com