Infinite: 4K UHD Review
Over the last couple of years, we have seen more than a handful of studio films that were originally bound for a theatrical release, get tossed over to streaming services. This was due to the pandemic and even with theaters back in business, people weren’t turning up in large numbers. That changed however with the Marvel releases. One big film that got plucked from a theatrical release was Antoine Fuqua’s sci-fi action flick, Infinite which stars Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It went straight to Paramount+ and arrives on Blu-ray and 4K UHD this week. After finally sitting down to watch this potential franchise starter, I can see why the studio had no problems dumping it onto their streamer. They knew that they had an expensive clunker on their hands and thought putting more money into marketing a theatrical release would be a bad decision. I have to say, I can’t say that they were wrong, as Infinite is a pretty lousy movie.
Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg) believes he suffers from schizophrenia, he has constant hallucinations that prevent him from living a normal life and holding down an actual job. However, it turns out that he doesn’t suffer from that illness. Instead, he is an Infinite, which are a group of people who have died and been reincarnated. They remember all-of-their past lives and reconnect with those who were close to them in their previous lives. Evan learns all of this after being confronted by past friend-turned-enemy, Bathurst (Ejiofor), who believes Evan knows the location of a weapon that could destroy all life on Earth. In Evan’s prior life, he was Heinrich Treadway (Dylan O’Brien), and he stole the weapon from Bathurst, who wanted to end all-life so that he would not be reincarnated again, along with anyone else. Evan also learns he had a love interest and partner in his previous lives. In his current one, she is Nora Brightman (Sophie Cookson) and she is here to help unlock Evan’s past memories in hopes of finding the weapon.
Infinite is a very convoluted and poorly structured mess of a film that can’t be saved by its wonderful visual effects or action sequences. Wahlberg is an absolute bore here and Ejiofor at times seems like he is trying too hard. The wonderfully funny Jason Mantzoukas is wasted for the most-part as Artisan who isn’t given enough to do here. His character seems to have been set up to play a bigger role in a sequel that I doubt we will ever see.
As bad as Infinite is, it isn’t the worse movie out there. Some of the action is fun, but it’s sandwiched in with some of the worst writing I have seen this year in a big budget feature. While the 4K UHD looks and sounds phenomenal, I can’t recommend picking up this disk unless you are a fan.
By: Marc Ferman