Infinite (2021)

Mark Wahlberg, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Toby Jones must have had good intentions of signing onto Antoine Fuqua’s globe-trotting sci-fi action film “Infinite. ” On paper, the premise sounds like a killer idea, Reincarnated warriors locked in a centuries old war work to save humanity. The good guys are on one side, the infinites, and the other side contains the nihilists. Here, the nihilist Bathurst (Ejiofor) tries to find a silver egg that is so powerful it can end all life and thus aid in suspending reincarnation. An Evan McCauley (Wahlberg) is the only man with knowledge of the weapon, but he’s unaware of it.

Infinite, Ian Shorr and Todd Stein’s adaptation of D. Eric Maikranz’s novel The Reincarnationist Papers, combines The Old Guard and The Matrix with a splash of The Fifth Element. Unfortunately, the product falls short of the lofty works from which it draws. Rather than crafting a high-concept science-fiction marvel, Fuqua’s “Infinite” depends on rather poor quality models and feeble world building, marking off as the worst film of his career. (Yes, worse than “King Arthur.” Yes, worse than Brooklyn’s Finest.)

From the very beginning, the filmmaker tries to paint a wide canvas but fails to craft a clear Visual language.

For instance, in “The Last Life”, three infinites appear to be engaged in a complex car chase in Mexico City. While they seem to dissolve into wide, unoccupied streets, it becomes visible that the action sequences have been poorly edited. Nothing about the hair, costumes or architecture serves as a decade marker for this time period. Now “In This Life”, present New York City appears to have a plethora of compositions such as the dimly lit, bustling streets of Manhattan sandwiched between flows of orange light makes for a compelling stock picture.

Evan appears to be getting interviewed for a top-tier position at a restaurant, which, considering his tumultuous past, should not be hard to achieve. Evan’s issues stemmed from an incident many years ago where, after being subjected to sexual harassment, a waitress was assaulted by a customer. While in himself problematic, Evan blames his schizophrenia for these actions. He suffers from vivid, unsettling hallucinations as well as auditory voices which tend to be borderline mystical. One day, he fantasizes about being a Japanese swordsmith and the next moment, finds himself making swords. In order to fight these episodes, he tends to take stronger pills. His abuse comes at the cost of making custom weapons for a local drug dealer. Apart from the sheer danger in assuming mental health patients as a threat, Fugua seems to lack complete faith in his audience, lacking the basic understanding of the plot.

Rather Wahlberg serves as the narrator of the movie, and in his voiceover, he states, with utmost seriousness, “These meds are running out, and once they do shit gets real.” Indeed, these meds are running out, and the narrator serves as an exposed temp track of the movie.

Eventually, Evan comes into the focus of both Bathurst and the Infinite. Although Chiwetel Ejiofor portrays Bathurst as a man mentally tortured into submission to the point that he merely wishes to die, that trauma is completely absent. Instead, a series of questions shakes the audience since Bathurst is portrayed in an almost frightening manner. His obnoxiously thick accent is also baffling and strange. It’s heavily self exaggerated, which makes it sound as though it’s ripped straight from a cartoon. The origins of Bathhurst’s character are equally puzzling. What is the net worth of his assets? Where are his nihilists?

The Infinite’s, like Bathurst’s, also elicit questions. The team’s leader, who resembles Professor X in a wheelchair, is Garrick, played by Liz Carr. Among her top soldiers stands tall bearded Kovic, played by Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, and also the highly skilled Nora, played by Sophie Cookson. The team is hoping that Evan is the reincarnated version of Treadwell, the agent who first misplaced the egg.

In Nora’s particular case, she wishes to meet with her previous lover again (his spirit is being held captive by Bathurst) and believes the egg can help him escape. The character dynamics between this trio and Evan are not developed at all. Conversely, Fuqua is given this fascinating world, but he does not wish to add dimensions to these heroes or their capabilities. The same applies to the group’s researcher with Toby Jones, and the wicked neurologist with Jason Mantzoukas.

In contrast, Fuqua pays much more attention to the action that goes into the movie. Which wouldn’t be a bad argument if the action was worth anything: The score drums at a particularly forgettable cadence. The fight choreography is appalling, and the execution is no better. In one instance, it is painfully clear that stunt actors filmed an entire bare knuckle brawl instead of Ejiofor and Jóhannesson. In the rest, where Evan and Nora attack Bathurst’s home, the editing is such a cataclysmic disaster that one can’t keep track of the action because of poor framing. And even if you were able to keep up with the images on the screen, you would wish you couldn’t after a while. Most unfortunate of all, the plot development in “Infinite” is inept. Indeed, the over-the-top and tacky VFX of soldiers seemingly suspended in air and wood shards shoving them to an even more tacky death were made to cover the dull stunts. Like the ungraceful defeat of Evan by Bathurst in the cargo compartment of a transport plane.

As there are no interesting characters and even the visuals leave much to be desired, ‘Infinite’ marks another addition to Fuqua’s sneakily directed soft tosses aimed at achieving franchise objectives. It also makes you think, foreshadowing the further installments, why these powers have a religious component to them was left unexplained. Nevertheless, it completely undermines this movie. In an action-adventure film about how to live your other lives, don’t bother with ‘Infinite.’

For more movies like Infinite (2021), visit Gomovies.