You’d think that world building in the realms of action/sci-fi would have been a snap after the Wachowski Siblings dropped The Matrix on us back in 1999. During that time, everyone from the X-Men to the Wachowskis themselves have tried to duplicate the steely cool of cramming rather complex set-ups into action flicks as quickly and succinctly as they can while making sure there’s still enough room to blow a ton of shit up. Get it right and you get the illogical lunacy of Wanted, or the cerebral flex of Inception – get it wrong and you’ll most likely get something as tedious and lazy as Infinite; a reality flipping Mark Wahlberg vehicle directed with surprisingly little focus by Antoine Fuqua.
Essentially another one of these movies that has an unfeasibly complex set-up that takes up more of the plot than the actual plot, Infinite was due to live it’s first life on the big screen, but after COVID turned the film industry upside-down, it was reincarnated as a feature doomed to premiere on Paramount’s fledgling streaming service. Between you and me, I think that’s where it truly belonged.
Right, pay attention because there might be a test later. It seems that there are around 500 beings out there who call themselves Infinites who have the uncanny ability to remember every single life they’ve ever lived and even call on the skills they learned in their former existences to help them in their present, reincarnated state. Of course, much like any secret race of super beings that’s ever appeared in a movie, they’ve split into warring factions with the good guys – or Believers – hoping to stop the villainous Bathurst and his Nihilists from wanting to destroy the earth. In 1985 we witness Bathurst give chase to an Infinite named Heinrich Treadway after the latter has stolen the Nihilists doomsday weapon they’ve chosen to call The Egg; but after a fiery conclusion, the Nihilist leader fails to retrieve his macguffin.
A quick leap ahead to 2020 and we find the troubled Evan McCauley who not only apparently suffers from schizophrenia, but also can call upon mysterious memories to not only answer random questions he couldn’t possibly know, but has the knowledge to forge a katana despite never clocking in a single, solitary second as a bladesmith. Its obvious to us that he’s an Infinte and after getting into a scrape with the law, Bathurst in his new body comes calling under the belief that McCauley is Treadway reincarnated and therefore must know the hidden location of the Egg. However, due to a youth spent surviving various medications, electroshock and even a suicide attempt, Treadway’s other memories weren’t given a chance to fully surface yet.
Soon the Believers arrive to claim their old member and a race begins to help McCauley remember his past shit before Bathurst gets his toy back and kills all life on earth.
While I’ve enjoyed some of Fuqua’s movies in the past, I have to say that I’m frankly surprised that the director has made such a stunningly forgettable film and what’s more, I’m horrified that such a moribund sci-fi actioner was ever considered for cinematic release in the first place. OK, I mean the basic premise hasn’t got the kick of mankind living in a computer simulation, or involves varied mutants, or the ability to weaponize dreams, but even with a concept that allows people to remember the details of their past lives, you’ll be quite taken aback at how little the film wants to actually explore the idea.
Maybe there’s another version out there that could have been a connected anthology movie that would have seen Treadway and Bathurst continue their battle through different time periods, but Fuqua and Wahlberg obviously couldn’t be fucked we all they had to do was bang out a lazy Matrix rip-off and then clock out. Actually judging by Wahlberg’s non-performance, the guy technically never actually clocked in, as the dude struggles to convince as a thirty-five year old, let along an ageless being with a harrowing history of misdiagnosed mental illness. While some actors would use the premise as a launching pad to possibly experiment with the type of performance they want to give (such as Chiwetel Ejiofor in this exact same movie, for example), Wahlberg just Wahlberg’s his way through the film, repeating chunks of exposition immediately after people have said them to make sure everyone on their phones can still follow the plot and looking incredibly glib for someone who has discovered that their life long mental illness is actually because he’s a being with supernatural powers. For someone who is supposed to be carrying the film on his broad, Boston shoulders, he only succeeds in sucking the utter life out of the entire film that not even a lively Ejiofor can manage to restore.
Elsewhere, Kingsman’s Sophie Cookson’s female lead struggles to make any impact at all in a sub-Trinity sort of part while Jason Mantzoukas struggles with some misplaced comic relief. However, when it comes to the prologue that kicks the film off, there’s a sense that some type of salvation for the flick wa under the nose of the filmmakers the entire time. In the fast-paced opening, we find that the former Treadway is being played by a cameoing Dylan O’ Brian (’85 Bathurst is Rupert Friend in case you were wondering) and if the film had reversed the roles to have the weathered (and decidedly not 35) Wahlberg play the established Treadway and have O’Brian play the younger and more vulnerable McCauley, then you’d immediately have a far more interesting and unpredictable film. However, a between Equalizers Fuqua just can’t seem to be arsed to tease anything new out of a potentially vibrant story and instead peppers lifeless, Michael Bay-esque action sequences throughout while constantly finding excuses for Wahlberg to pose with a samurai sword. It’s strange because regardless what you think about the director’s more recent movies, you can at least tell he’s fully behind them; I mean, it’s obvious that he desperately wants Denzel to look cool while he’s fucking up the mob. But here he’s completely on autopilot, which is ironic because it would be understandable if Infinite was actually meant to be a direct to streaming movie. However, when you realise that the flick was fully intented for a cinematic release, you can’t help but wonder why the film is so empty.
A film so pointless, I feel like I should offer up a quick apology to my future incarnations for saddling them with the memory of this lifeless dross, Infinite fittingly feel like it goes on forever.
Infinity bore.
🌟
We Have Issues 