Infinite is the newest sci-fi thriller that was meant for theaters but was quietly dumped on Paramount+, and finally seeing the film, it makes sense why a studio would leave it on a streaming service. It feels like a film that was meant for streaming and not the big screen. I knew the writing was on the wall when we got the first trailer last week. A Mark Wahlberg-led film would typically receive a lot of marketing, but it seems the studio just didn’t care enough and just wanted to be done with it.
The film follows Evan McCauley (Wahlberg), an average guy haunted by skills he has never learned to accept and the memories of places he’s never visited. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, he is rescued by a secret group whose members call themselves “Infinites.” They reveal to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.
Before we got the first trailer, I was looking forward to this film because I’m a Shooter fan, so I was excited to see Wahlberg reunite with Antoine Fuqua. Unfortunately, I can say there aren’t many positive things about this film. The most significant praise is that the action sequences were fun and good for the most part, aside from some awful CGI at times. Fuqua is a pro at action scenes, as he’s shown on The Equalizer films and Olympus Has Fallen, so I wasn’t surprised that was the best aspect.
That’s really where the positives end. This film had so much potential on paper. There was a lot of great world-building that could have happened if the script had been better; unfortunately, the great hook was wasted on a boring film for the majority of the run time. The movie felt like a mix of The Matrix and The Old Guard, but both those films were a lot better. The Old Guard just coming out last year is the film audiences will compare this to most, and it did a better job at making its story enjoyable.
The film’s other connection to The Old Guard is that Chiwetel Ejiofor is also in this. He is a great actor and was fine in the villain role. However, I felt he was hamming it up a bit too much for me. For fans of Dylan O’Brien, sorry to disappoint you, while his role is vital, it sadly equals 4-6 minutes of screen time. I‘m a huge Mark Wahlberg fan, but this was a terrible performance. Infinite is one of the worst of his career, on the same level of atrocity as his performances in The Happening and Max Payne.
Sadly, Infinite is a film I won’t remember much about by the end of this week. It’s one of the worst films of the year. Skip Infinite at all costs.
