MovieChat Forums > The Objective (2008) Discussion > One of the worst movies in recent memory...

One of the worst movies in recent memory? spoilers

posted 16 years ago by Tygalilly
26 replies | jump to latest

Yes, I'd say so. I wanted to like it; I really did. But there are only so many times one can listen to the tripe dialogue and extremely bad acting before it starts to get on your nerves. To be fair, there were exactly three very good moments in the movie: One involved the final interaction between the last soldier alive and Keynes. I felt the emotion behind the soldier's somber realisation that he was most certainly going to die; it was very well directed and acted. The second moment was another soldier (possibly Michael Williams) threatening to kill Keynes if he didn't own up to the true objective of the mission -- again, pretty good acting in this moment. Finally, the only genuine thrill moment came during Cole's survey of the land as they set up camp with a mysterious elderly man living in the mountains. The switch from normal mode to night vision, only to reveal a terrifying presence among them, was extremely well-executed. And I'll add that the actor portraying Abdul had the most overall talent of anyone in this movie.

HOWEVER... three moments does not an entire movie make. Those three minutes of goodness does not excuse 87 minutes of sheer garbage. Cinematography aside, there were hardly any interesting shots in this movie. I never became emotionally invested in any of the characters and, quite frankly, found it insulting that Myrick decided to add that epilogue sequence involving Keynes's wife. It was a cheap "Hail Mary" shot to get audiences to care about Keynes, or about anybody in the movie, or get the audience "thinking". It didn't help that whoever portrayed Keynes's wife couldn't act at all. Absolutely ghastly.

Lastly, I find it ridiculous that this could be considered a thinking man's thriller. What's to think about in this movie? I feel that any philosophical debate about "who is the real enemy?" and other questions discussed directly in relation to "The Objective" rather appears like bloated coffee house fodder, considering the apparent "real" enemy of this movie is good taste.

[–] ebobrow 16 years ago

Ditto

[–] The_Big_Silver_Screen 16 years ago

To each their own, of course, me I enjoyed it. Enjoyed the script/storyline and suspense

[–] Theora23 16 years ago

I enjoyed it as well. Nice suspense and good premise, even though the dialog wasn't that good. All in all, it seemed like a long "Twilight Zone" episode with realistic gore and language (I liked "The Twilight Zone", so this is not a slam). I was also reminded of "Picnic at Hanging Rock", because the setting and atmosphere are so important.

I'm not sure it'd do that well with a theatrical release, though, because people will be expecting something more like "The Blair Witch Project". I can't see a film distributor resisting the desire to promote it as a horror movie.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] shellsing 16 years ago

Havent seen the film yet, but I did like how your use of words in the title of the thread differs from whats usually seen here on imdb :p

[–] coffan_88 16 years ago

this movie was a complete waste of time and can anyone agree that within the first 3 minutes you could tell that is was garbage all the way through.

[–] rhezdekus 16 years ago

You have to be kidding me. Tripe dialogue? Bad acting?

This was acting one of the better movies I have seen in a while, and one of the few movies were the actors actually seemed like special force operatives.

The problem is that you just do "get it," nor understand the sublte connections in the movie. You don't understand the connection between the ancient jinn to mystical aliens that was being hinted at here.

In short, the little hints in the movie when right over your head.

Maybe "Rambo" is more your speed.

[–] rrpostal 16 years ago

How many worst movie/ you didn't get it arguments can there be on IMDB. Why do you assume he doesn't get it and must like Rambo if he found this a bad movie? I tend to agree it was like a TZ or maybe an Outer Limits episode. I probably would've liked it A a LOT more if it had been a half hour to maybe an hour (TV time, not real time). Really everything could have been said and done in that time frame. The soldiers where the best part nut they weren't really doing much.

I'm all for a cerebral movie, but I thought this one came across as pseudo-intellectual, without any real meat on the plate. That doesn't mean I want to watch Rambo all the time and it's silly to suggest so. It's fine if you find it a good movie and would even listen to your take on the "meaning" that I am apparently missing. When a main point is "we don't understand what's happening" and then the movie proceeds to prove it, I'm not challenged by it. And the protagonist wasn't likeable. He set off to be a guinea pig in order to explore this unknown and succeeded. But he sacrificed many other people without their consent and didn't even care, which ultimately just made me dislike him more. I didn't think the obsessive character was done very well. They didn't give any reason WHY he would care so much other than "just because he's obsessed". Everything seemed that way in this flick. But at least he could hover whilst sleeping.

[–] lgwijers 16 years ago

I actually liked this one, and I'm not going to argue with any of you.
I thought the Special Ops guys were portrayed realistically, but that's just an opinion of a non-military guy who saw a documentary about Dutch Special Ops which seemed awfully similar.
It's not that strange either, as the actors were ex-military and even one actual ex special ops-soldier. (if I heard it correctly on the interview with the director)
I think there's not much "to get", I just liked it for what it was and I found myself spending an hour or two reading up about this plane artifact they showed in the movie, which turns out to be an actual pre columbian artifact found in some cave in real life, surrounded by it's own myths, believers and debunkers.
Only thing I couldn't quite make out in this movie was the name of the anomaly, I wanted to see if that's an actual existing myth as well.
Anyone know?

Edit: alright, it was the sanskrit myth of the Vimanas

[–] WhenHesOnADrunk 16 years ago

It is an existing 'myth' (I agree with the wording here). It's a religious aspect of Islam that is very common in the middle east.

[–] robind32 16 years ago

this was booooooooooooooring...Rambo is well worth watching as far as excitement and action and overall entertainment.....from what i see on this board is artsy fartsy people that seem to love this kinda boring crap.....each to their own......but it seems here at IMDB ...the higher the rating...the less likely i will like it

[–] Dviitale-1 16 years ago

So disagree Robind. The Objective requires one to think. you should try it sometime!

Post before Robind, well said. Agree 100%!!

[–] cyanideghost 16 years ago

I have to agree with you here, the movie was very very well made in my opinion.
The story was very nice, except that the movie was a little short.
I felt they rushed the end, could have made it so that theres a sequel.
Plus the ending is abrupt, they could have shown us more about the conclusion and the soldiers backgrounds.
Very realistically portrayed military soldiers, excellent acting.
Sound effects - 10/10
Music - 10/10
Visuals - 10/10
Acting - 10/10
Story - 8/10

Only reason the movie wasnt 10/10 is because it was cut short without an apparent conclusion - which wastes an entire 2 hours (but this movie is worth definitely watching).

[–] Dviitale-1 16 years ago

Ditto Cyan. I enjoyed this movie greatly. Seems like their are many negative nellies who dont like to think.

[–] 20thCentury 14 years ago

"
Maybe "Rambo" is more your speed."

I was thinking non-stop action, like "wanted" or "armegedon" might please these people that love to put down movies they dont understand.

Ahno shwartznegger (sp) knows well what titillates their craniums to disgorge cash. This was alot like predator, except the cia guy wasn't the last one alive. If ahno made this, he would've be the chief and the last one alone - then shown somma that good ole "american exceptialism" (via austria) and barely eeked out victory in a climactic battle between good and evil alien (with an islamic personna?) at the end. No guessing about the ending. All those special forces guys would have been celebrity circus entertainers or football and WWE stars, that would have exhibited their unique powress before dying off. Actors that perform closer to reality dont impress these complainers. I hope the movie makers dont all succumb to making garbage, in order to please the masses for more money.

"Death, has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." Donald Rumsfeld

[–] m884763666 16 years ago

I didn't think it was that bad, since it held my interest throughout. I had no idea going in what was going to happen, and so it was surprising where the story went. However, once Keynes states the real reason why he brought the soldiers out there, I hated him. He was such an a**hole, especially when he pulled out that flask he had the entire time near the end and left the last soldier to die. I was hoping he would die, but was disappointed when he apparently was the only survivor.

Overall, I would give it 5/10. Interesting story/ideas and the soldiers were well-acted, but making the main character unsympathetic and just abruptly ending the story didn't leave a good taste.

[–] mail-1030 16 years ago

How on earth can you say its one of the worst films ever made? honestly!? all shot on Location in the Atlas Mountains Morocco? thats not worth something? you might not of liked it, but come on .... Personally I thought it was one of the better Horror/War/Sci-fi efforts on a par with something like R-Point, or Outpost. I also liked the ending for what its worth, ticked over in my head that night - a brave effort - big up the director

6 out of 10 from me...

oh and a good atmospheric soundtrack, used as it should be - sparyingly

[–] ebobrow2 16 years ago

If you guys were wondering why the actors were so good at acting military, it's because they were all formerlly in the marines/army/etc... except for like 2 of the actors.

Oh, this film was bad imo too.

[–] wraithguardomega 14 years ago

It probably would have been a better movie if it was just scenery shots then.

There has been great movies that were filmed in one room. Just because it was filmed in an exotic location doesn't give it any extra value.

[–] daveyb701-1 15 years ago

I mostly agree with Tygalilly. And I think it's an incredibly weak argument to say "If you hated this movie, you don't like to think". It's a cheap shot at a well written criticism of many of the films parts.

I didn't think the acting was anything extraordinary. Specifically the guy who played keynes seemed stiff, and it felt like he was trying too hard to be the "stern unemotional CIA op".

Additionally, a storyteller's (filmmaker's) responsibility is to educate their audience first, if even just a little. Invest in the audience and entice them to care. I've read some of these boards, and the phenomena/experiences these guys have are all based on real things, but they're not widely known (at least in the western world). So why the filmmaker's didn't find a way to even KIND of explain what people thought was happening, or potentially was occurring is frustrating. It doesn't make most audience members even kind of care about what they're seeing. A good example of the filmmaker educating the audience, telling a story, and making the audience think was the Blair Witch Project. They did it right with that film. And, they didn't need to do it the exact same way. But some info, some background, something substantial to make me invest in the experiences/phenomena and the characters would've made this film much better.

I didn't hate the film. I loved some of the things that happened (the splitting lights were awesome). But I didn't think this movie was good.

The woman playing keyne's wife was either a terrible actor or the writing was awful. I mean, absolutely awful.

"My husband didn't tell me much about his missions because he was in the CIA..."

Terrible line.

[–] dualexaust2002 15 years ago

this was the best striaght-to-dvd thriller/horror of the year.

[–] smokehill retrievers 14 years ago

It barely rises to the dreadful level of The Blair Witch Project -- which is pretty bad.

Having spent a few decades in the intelligence community, it always annoys me when some author or script-scribbler won't spend five minutes of research to make sure that at least the plot -- if not the details -- make some sort of sense. Didn't happen here. By the time I got to the part where they refer to a "cache" (pronounced CASH) and pronounce it CASHAY ... I was really starting to lose interest.

The plot (and the mission) made no sense. The tactics ... well, ridiculous. No one who spent even a month in the military, let alone the special ops community, could watch this without laughing.

Acting? None observed. Most high school plays do better. Abdul was as close as they came to a competent actor.

I'm still debating on whether to give this a 2 or a 3, out of 10.

[–] mjswooosh 14 years ago

I think smokehill is a bit harsh, but I'm inclined to agree with the OP that this is a disappointing film. My reasons are in line with smokehills, though I'm a bit more forgiving of certain tactical/intelligence inadequacies. I felt that the acting was generally competent, but nothing to write home about. Overall I'd give it a 5 out of 10, which means it falls short of recommendable to any but the most hard core sci-fi/horror fans with some late-night time to kill (which describes my reasons for watching it LOL). Basically, if I had actually paid more than a couple bucks to see this I'd have been pretty disappointed.

[–] ksperrye 10 years ago

<smokehill retrievers> :

I just wanted to take the time to THANK You for pointing out one of the errors in the film that made me CRINGE: pronouncing CACHE as "cashay" instead of "cash". ****SHUDDER!****

It embarrassed me for my Country. This is an exemplary representation of one of the top reasons Americans are considered throughout the world to be < Uneducated Idiots >.

The error also demonstrated that despite using actual career-military actors, no one involved with this film performed the requisite research, fact-checking, or vetting. They did not even Bother to delve into the world of Intelligence (at Home or Abroad), as evidenced by their lack of knowledge & understanding of terminology and operational tactics in the realm of covert/black/above top secret, the sadly obvious fact that no consultants were used who had CIA, NSA, FBI, DHS, or even a low level security clearance......and I know with Certainty that the ever-tanking American Economy has softened the iron jaws of MANY "former spooks & alphabets" who'd be thrilled to give the script an "air of authenticity" without having to leave the comfort of their favorite recliner.

In addition to seeing one of my pet peeves immortalized on film (mispronouncing words &/or using them incorrectly), it was frustrating to watch a film that "COULD HAVE BEEN........" (fill in the blank, as many adjectives w' belong there: compelling, incredible, thought-provoking, inspiring, an enigma, mind-expanding, scintillating, exciting, thrilling, beautiful, scenic, and Many, MANY more, including award-worthy and .............. GENUINE!

Sigh.....

[–] finbo_martini 13 years ago

I would like to point out that the film was entirely an exercise in atmosphere - and that you said 'Cinematography aside, there were hardly any interesting shots in this movie.' and undermine yourself and your criticism. I liked it, was gripped the whole way through and the atmosphere stuck with me for a few hours. Might even get it on DVD.
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One of the worst movies in recent memory? *spoilers*

One of the worst movies in recent memory? spoilers