The Objective tells the story of a rag tag band of Special Ops escorting a CIA agent on a deadly mission to Afghanistan to investigate…something?

Pretty much a watered-down version of every isolated, mysterious, invisible enemy, strange encounter type deal it borrows heavily from the classics of the unseen predator genre to provide nothing new other than placing said excursion into the wasteland of the Afghan desert.

With the mission objective withheld by Jonas Ball’s company man from the crew and the audience there is no small measure of initial mystery. The unpolished attire of the desert ops seems realistic enough but questionably makes the company feel under-equipped, but a slim outlay admirably squeezes more than is expected from a Hollywood B-budget.

Desert and canyon altercations bring some respectably handled fire fighting to up the action ante and the premise remains intriguing, but for The Blair Witch Project’s director it’s nothing near as an effective comeback as was his stupendous fledgling horror entry.

It’s just all too foreseeable with hackneyed dialogue and story development to go with a quite pointless voice-over from a miscast lead that feels more like an effort to inject a meaningful post 9/11 (set just days after) lamentation than expand on events.

With low-fi disadvantages The Objective struggles to provide anything that unique; ultimately stumbling over predictable pacing, plotting and character stereotypes.