Things do not improve when the team runs of out of water, some of which mysteriously turns to sand. (I dare anyone to watch The Objective and not run straight for the Brita jug immediately thereafter.)
The ending of The Objective, unfortunately, is something of a letdown. Without giving anything away, we're told exactly what Keynes and his team were looking for, but it's hard to tell exactly what happened to them once they — the survivors, at least — found it. It may never be known if it was Myrick's choice to leave the ending somewhat ambiguous, or he just didn't have the budget to film the climax he wanted.
Jonas Ball doesn't seem right for the lead role, either. In particular, he seems far too young to be a veteran agent who spent time in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation; and compared to the impressive supporting cast, Ball gives a rather flat and lifeless performance. Some of the dialogue (co-written by Myrick, Mark Patton, and Wesley Clark, Jr., the son of you-know-who) is pretty hackneyed, too.
Still, The Objective is a tense and disturbing film, and it shows that Myrick — dismissed as a one-hit filmmaking wonder after his post-Blair Witch projects failed to gain much of an audience — still has something to offer. Here's hoping he keeps at it, and that he eventually gets a script and a budget worthy of his talent.
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