It becomes clear from the very first seconds that Antoine Fuqua’s ‘Infinite’ will not be the most successful film. But was the idea stillborn, or did it have potential – that’s worth figuring out.

Brief Synopsis of ‘Infinite’

Evan (Mark Wahlberg) has a very hard time – his mental instability prevents him from living and working normally. He constantly sees places he has never been and possesses skills he never learned, which led to a diagnosis of schizophrenia in his teenage years.

However, everything changes when strange people appear in his life and tell him about the concept of reincarnation with the ability to remember past lives. And schizophrenia might have nothing to do with it…

Clear from the First Seconds

A seasoned viewer who has seen more than two sci-fi action films will immediately be able to draw conclusions about the spectacle ahead. Why is that?

Because the film begins with a voiceover that, from the very first seconds, explains the main conflict of the film, centered on groups of people who can remember their previous reincarnations.

And so, instead of being surprised by what happens to the main character, we are deprived of any involvement. We know more than he does, and not just because we watched the trailer. We won’t wonder along with him whether Evan is having another hallucination or if everything is real.

And this is despite the fact that the character played by actress Sophie Cookson repeats the world’s backstory word for word at the very beginning of the second act. It feels as if the creators didn’t think much of their audience and were afraid no one would understand anything. Sad, because a setup based on an element of mystery would have been much more successful.

Questions About the Plot

Even if we remove the missed opportunity for mystery from the equation, we still get a decent idea ruined by a tasteless, second-rate, banal plot.

If you’ve seen ‘The Matrix’ — you’ve seen a more successful version of ‘Infinite’, with better-written characters, clear motivations, and logical events. Very good ‘good guys’ fight very bad ‘bad guys’ who want to destroy the world because they are bad. No, the film does provide an explanation, but it’s so cloyingly cliché that it’s almost nauseating.

Thanos’s motivation seems simply brilliant in comparison.  

‘Infinite’ and Direction

The only thing that can pull ‘Infinite’ out of the abyss of mediocrity is the chase and fight scenes. There’s no denying it, the action direction here is above average, although it suffers from the ‘overcompensation’ syndrome. A lot of attention is paid to it to distract the viewer from the overall absurdity.

And that would be fine, but for all its charm, it also lacks originality. Even from Fuqua himself, we’ve seen all this before.

Let’s throw one more tiny stone at the film. You won’t believe it (sarcasm sign), but the futuristic technologies shown in it, which are supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the main characters over us, simple plebeians, are also stunningly derivative. There are virtual reality rooms, 3D holograms, and magical interfaces rotating around the heroes’ heads at the wave of their hands.

Been there. Seen that. Boring.

Acting Performances

Somewhere around the discussion of acting performances, we hit a dead end. Because the actors are trying – and it shows. Marky-Mark isn’t that bad, Cookson is seductive, Chiwetel Ejiofor convincingly psychopaths, and Jason Mantzoukas almost makes you smile.

But they are all given such poor dialogue and so little material to work with that all their efforts end in failure.

Wahlberg can swing a samurai sword as convincingly as he wants, but his character doesn’t evoke empathy. Ejiofor can furrow his brows and laugh madly as much as he wants, but his character isn’t frightening. Mantzoukas can joke as much as he wants, but his delivery doesn’t save the bad jokes.

Conclusion

‘Infinite’ could absolutely have become something interesting. After all, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ or , which the author of this article still remembers fondly, are also just reworkings of ‘Groundhog Day’.

Roman Kovalev

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Open material

But to make an old formula work, you need to offer the viewer something new. Or, at the very least, write interesting characters and place them in an interesting setting.

There’s none of that here. Feel free to skip ‘Infinite’ if you don’t want to waste your time. Or you can put it on in the background while you tidy up your apartment. But is it worth it?