DVD Review: The Objective
The Objective (2008)
Studio: MPI Home Video
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Directed By: Daniel Myrick
Cast: Jonas Ball, Matthew R. Anderson, Jon Huertas, Chems-Eddine Zinoune & Sam Hunter.
Review By: Annie Riordan
In the days immediately following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the CIA dispatches Ben Keynes, one of their top agents, to Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, there to lead a Special Forces team into the southern desert in search of an Afghani cleric named Mohammed Aban. Keynes says only that they need Aban for an official statement against the Taliban. Upon being dropped at the remote village where Aban lives, they are told by the locals that the man is no longer there but, instead, has gone into hiding in the sacred mountains where not even the Taliban will venture. With the help of Abdul, a local guide, the team heads into the mountains in search of Aban.
It soon becomes clear however that the territory into which they have wandered earned its sinister reputation for good reason: it’s an Afghani version of the Bermuda Triangle, housing phantom soldiers who disappear when fired upon, eerie lights that dive bomb the men and strange fiery shields floating in the air. Could these be the same objects identified by Alexander the Great? The men don’t know, and Keynes isn’t talking. As the days stretch on and their water supply runs low, the group begins to fragment and casualties rise. It soon becomes clear that their mission isn’t a mission at all, but rather a dangerous test, one involving UFO’s, alien weapons technology and almost certain death.
For the first hour of this film, I was completely hooked, mystified and eager to find out what the hell was going on, and how would it all end? Myrick (The Blair Witch Project) does a terrific job of building suspense and paying off with small “whoa, what the hell?” moments throughout the film. The acting is aces all the way, the script smart and the settings bleak and convincing. Jonas Ball – apparently a bit of a newcomer to the screen – turns in a terrific performance as the stoic Keynes, whose sanity and purpose slowly but surely crumble as the story progresses. I’d like to see more of this guy.
The ending is a bit of a letdown though. To say it’s a tad ambiguous is like saying that the current economy is a bit on the shaky side. Maybe it would have made more sense if I’d been shot up with morphine at the time. It’s like one of those strangely epochal dreams you have at least once in your life, where life’s every mystery is revealed to you and the universe and all of its infinite workings suddenly make sense…but then you wake up and you can’t remember a goddamned thing. The conclusion of The Objective is a lot like that: frustratingly intangible, the answers just out of reach.
The journey up to that point however is wonderfully constructed and solidly disturbing, though it may bore the pants off of fans who prefer their horror fast paced and bloody as hell. The ending is open for debate…so please, if you decide to sit through it, can you tell me what the hell YOU think happened?
Brutal As Hell Rating: 3 out of 5
