The Objective

After watching this movie I came straight back on IMDb to see if I could make sense of what I had just watched. But after reading all the comments so far, I am none the wiser. It definitely did remind me of 'Blair Witch In The Desert' (with an Apocalypse Now style narration throughout) albeit without the hand camera so at least you don't feel queasy at the end, just a tad confused

Having said that, it did command my attention until the end, and I did enjoy it. After about 1/2 an hour its pretty obvious that the ending isn't going to be neatly wrapped up so it shouldn't leave you too disappointed

The only original idea in this movie is to unapologetically use an actual, on-going and bloody war as a superficial backdrop to a pointless and hackneyed plot. The crew seemed like a good bunch of guys, and I'm sure they had a ton of fun in Morocco filming this. Too bad nobody has done the hard work of coming up with a coherent vision, purpose and narrative; of aligning location, characters and story; of coming up with a meaning or a graceful way of avoiding imposing a meaning; or, at the very least, of making an engaging thriller.

Stephanie Martin's cinematography, however, did make the movie much more bearable. Well-done and beautiful. Even stunning at times.

The score was quite good as well, I thought.

I was drawn in by the concept, though I think that people expecting a traditional ghost story may be a bit disappointed by the lack of exposition, plus the lack of a tidy conclusion that draws everything together. Much like The Blair Witch Project, the ending is ambiguous, leaving you to draw your own conclusion as to what just happened. If you happen to be familiar with Middle Eastern occultism and mythology, you'll probably recognize a lot of themes and concepts, but if your knowledge is limited to Disney's Aladdin, I think you'll be completely lost, due to the lack of exposition or explanation. The most interesting aspect to this movie, that draws it away from being your normal ghost story, is that the supernatural events are couched in terms of UFO lore. Are the antagonists insurgents? Ghosts? Interdimensional travelers? UFO aliens? Djinn? Who knows. In the end, it's not really all that important. It is the melding of these two similar yet disparate themes (contemporary UFO conspiracy theories and traditional mythology) that make this movie more interesting than if it had just gone one way or the other. The problem is that this is basically a rehash of The Blair Witch Project, with people descending into mutinous fist-fights, getting lost in areas that defy both maps and local knowledge (with the requisite compass going haywire), and straaaange symbols that seem to be part warning and part curse. In fact, I felt like I was watching a strange mix of The Blair Witch Project (which I disliked quite a lot) and Apocalypse Now (which I really enjoyed), with elements of Close Encounters mixed in, near the climax. I think this works better than BWP (partly because the acting was so horrible in BWP), but it still ultimately fails, because, like BWP, it's basically just a bunch of guys walking around, seeing increasingly spooky stuff, with no real payoff at the end. In that sense, maybe it's more of an "experience" than it is storytelling, and how much you enjoy this movie will probably hinge on whether you're looking for an interesting experience or conventional storytelling.

Afghanistan November 2001 and the Taliban who have ruled the country under a jackboot for several years have been ousted . A CIA operative is embedded with an American special forces team and leads them on a secret mission in the South of the country . After a fire fight with the Taliban where several insurgents are killed the SF team are puzzled in finding the bodies of the dead have disappeared , almost as if they'd never existed

I've got to put my hand up and say I knew this was a cross genre movie before I watched it . If you're expecting a straight laced action thriller set in the 'Stan then you might be surprised as to where this is heading . Director Daniel Myrick does play up to the film being set in a very real time and place , giving the movie an almost documentary look with hand-held cameras and cinema verite style but this isn't how the film progresses

Foreshadowing is a difficult thing . Play your hand too soon and the audience might be one step ahead of the characters and boredom sets in , play it too late and the audience will feel cheated so the writers deserve some credit in keeping the audience intrigued . I did have a rough idea where everything was heading and was still interested , though wasn't entirely gripped . Some credit too for bringing in a little bit of past history to Afghanistan involving Alexander The Great's ill fated expedition to the country and the reference of the British retreat from Kabul in the 19th Century . A graveyard of empires indeed

Everything's chugging along nicely and THE OBJECTIVE is a engaging little horror/war film with some good locations and a small non star cast . The problem lies in the last five minutes which I had difficulty in understanding . Again it's not down too much or too little foreshadowing but the fact it remains unexplained which diluted my enjoyment of the film slightly which I was enjoying up to this point

This a smart Sci-fi/horror/ War Movie in a similar vein to R-Point or Outpost, a bit of popular myth (this time on a Erik von Dankin tip)... set against the backdrop of the most modern of wars.

It's low budget and fairly obscure, punching above its weight with superbly haunting location shots (Atlas Mountains Morocco) and tight audio FX / Soundtrack. The Special forces soldiers are believable too, kudos to the military adviser, and the acting's not bad too.

The best think about 'The Objective'is the brooding pacing, It never scared me, more just left of field enough to make you think - this is and a bit different, that's a bit odd, this ain't Hollywood etc... and all the better for it... not surprising then to learn its from one of the directors from Blair Witch...

On the flip side the heavy narration gives it a TV movie feel and though it kind of works in the end hmmmm, I dunno there was still a bit much. Narrative's a bit al over thae place, and whilst some might shout "rubbish" or IMDb fav "worst movie ever" I'll go for "fun for what it is" and that is on a par with an extended version of your fav X-file's/Outer limits episode.... Absolutely Recommended I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Objective'