THE FLICK
Here's an easy question: if a movie (or book or television program) has a title which begs for an explanation or, at the very least an answer, shouldn't that production be required to provide said answer? Movies like What's Love Got to Do With It or TV's LOST have a responsibility to answer the implied questions. The same goes for The Objective, an action thriller from the director of The Blair Witch Project. Dispatched to Afghanistan under a cover story of gaining a holy man's support for the current operation, Benjamin Keynes (Jonas Ball) leads a Special Ops group through the hills after what he believes are WMD's. Only what they find isn't conventional weapons and the Taliban certainly isn't involved. But what are the strange lights and bizarre weapons?
It may be a minor spoiler to say The Objective doesn't follow through on its promise. What exactly is the objective? Of course, we know what Keynes is looking for, but what is it, exactly? That's the issue. Leaving something like this open to interpretation doesn't really work when the story demands an answer. To leave the audience up in the air-especially when a sequel most likely isn't in the cards-is a terrible tease. What happens in the lead-up to the finale wants to be more than enough for the audience to get invested in, to answer all the questions the story either doesn't want to or can't answer. But it's not, for any number of reasons.
Most of the story issue comes with the relatively short run time. Clocking in at just 90 minutes, The Objective has more than enough time to flesh out the entire story in addition to making each of the Special Ops officers a three-dimensional person. In these terms, James Cameron's Aliens is perhaps the best example. Both this movie and that one are told rather economically, jumping right into the story with an exposition heavy "mission briefing" scene. The key difference in the two is The Objective goes around in circles, taking far too long to get to the real plot of the film. And in that time, the men aren't allowed to be anything but grunts. Sure, you can distinguish them by one characteristic-the African American, the married one, and so on-but none matter in any way. Contrast that to the near legendary characters of Hicks, Hudson and Vesquez and how Cameron gave them all a personality while driving the story itself. Imagine a film in which every supporting character is a Frost or Spunkmeyer; that is to say, bland, boring and mere cannon fodder.
By taking them out of the equation, director and co-writer Daniel Myrick leaves the entirely of the film on Ball's shoulders. And that in and of itself is a problem. Ball may be a competent leading man in a film that lets him do something, but the Keynes character doesn't do a whole lot. He has a vacant, nearly lost expression for most of the film which, in and of itself, is uncompelling cinema. There's nothing to ground the audience to him, to make us root for him to survive. It all goes back to the ending. Simply, no one involved with the production knows what the ending is, let alone how to put it on screen or get the audience there. It's as if there was a very "cool" idea for an ending but the rest of the film was written to get us there instead of with a genuine purpose. That's why Ball's performance just sits on the screen and why, ultimately, The Objective doesn't work.
There are moments of....competency...even good storytelling within The Objective. For starters, filming in Moracco as a stand in for Afghanistan helps the authenticity of the film. There are no computer or camera tricks to mask a city or other sign of civilization. The camera can literally do a complete 360 and see nothing but desert. As the group heads up a mountain or into a cave, we know these are authentic locations and not sound stages. And for everything I said about the lack of characters earlier, the script does make a rather stark distinction between the men of 392 (the Special Ops team) and Keynes, using the broadest strokes available to a writer. Kaynes is a straight laced, buttoned up kind of guy with his eyes firmly set on the mission and nothing else. The men, on the other hand, are more laid back, cracking jokes and going on about their jobs with a sense of humor.
Myrick is confident behind the camera, combining hand held documentary and more steady styles. Ultimately, it works for this project, giving the illusion the audience is right next to the Special Ops team without eliciting a queasy, Blair Witch feeling. I know that's the job of the director and other behind-the-scenes personnel, but it is difficult to pull off. Knowing Myrick was the director behind Blair Witch, you can't help but be worried of another film using those same camera techniques. He and the lighting department also give each location its own unique look, helping to distinguish a holy man's home (with natural hues) against the American command center (with darkness and plenty of shadow).
THE LOOK
The anamorphically enhanced picture on The Objective looks quite remarkable. Everything from a plane interior bathed in red light to large chunks of the movie taking place in the dead of night present no real problems, transfer wise. Blacks have a richness and depth to them which is brought out by the disc. A fine layer of grain doesn't detract from the quality; in fact, it accentuates the documentary style the filmmakers are going for. Shots through night vision goggles which, by default, make the picture a combination of green and black, are striking. The only issue with the transfer would be isolated shots being a bit softer than expected.
THE SOUND
Just like the video, the English 5.1 mix is everything it should be and more. The surround sound effects are effective from the very beginning of the film, forcefully filling all the speakers and creating a recognizable environment for the story. Bass jumps in every once in a while, though not as often as you'd imagine from an action film. The balance between the soundtrack and dialogue is more than a bit off, almost as if everyone is whispering their lines. By far, Ball is the worst offender of the group in this regard. English and Spanish subtitles are included.
THE STUFF
Instead of loading The Objective up with half-hearted bonus material, IFC Films includes a couple worthy video-based supplements. The first is The Objective: A Behind the Scenes Look. Fully half of this featurette is comprised of film clips with either actual dialogue or filmmaker voiceover. Director Myrick mentions, among other things, this movie started when he saw one scene in particular and then he extrapolated the rest of the plot from that one shot. Otherwise, we learn about a crucial lesson from the Moroccan shoot (be humble) and the actors were allowed to experiment with their characters on screen.
Both Myrick and director of photography Stephanie Martin have their own interview featurettes. The director's comments are fairly commonplace; it is Martin's piece which is much more fascinating. In it, she talks about this being her first "war" film and how she communicated with a crew in six different languages. What she doesn't say is how she was received as a female in charge on the set using a native crew in an African country which is a member of Arab and Islamic organizations. Last up is a trailer. Trailers for other films are included at start up: Nightmare, Prisoner, Fear(s) of the Dark and Sauna. They are not available from the Special Features menu. The film is broken down into 16 chapters and comes packed in a regular black keepcase sans insert.