Between the stars and the action, Mark Wahlberg’s new sci-fi, action movie Infinite has plenty of elements that make the film worth watching.
For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, Evan is sought by a secret group that calls themselves “Infinites,” revealing to him that his memories may be real but they are from multiple past lives.
The consent of reincarnation has led to many stories over the years, this time with a sci-fi twist with Antoine Fuqua’s latest film, Infinite based on D. Eric Maikranz’s The Reincarnationist Paper. Originally supposed to debut in theaters last summer, the Mark Wahlberg-starring movie finally arrives on Paramount+, making it the streamer’s most high-profile cinematic debut so far.
Infinite has the star power to generate some interest and it’s an entertaining ride with a gripping concept. Reincarnation is an interesting topic and as the basis for a secret organization in a sci-fi movie, makes for a pretty compelling story. Viewers get quick flashes of Evan’s past lives, and editor Conrad Buff IV does a great job cutting between those flashes with the present day, creating a disorienting feel to Evan’s journey. Even though the film doesn’t explore Evan’s past beyond his last life, it does leave some room for future movies.
Now, as an action flick, the movie succeeds in pulling off some insane sequences. Fuqua certainly knows how to create engaging set pieces, whether it’s a car chase that starts inside a police station or one hero taking out an entire strike team that outnumbers him. Infinite is an entertaining ride, but tye mythology keeps the audience from not getting too invested in the team’s task. Even though the entire world’s fate is at stake, there is a strange lack of urgency about it. The action is thrilling, don’t get me wrong, but not in the sense that one is worried whether Evan and his allies can stop Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejiofor) from enacting his evil plan.
Wahlberg handles Evan’s disorientation, then commitment to the task at hand well. There is a sense that Evan adjusts to his new reality pretty quickly, but that’s more of a script issue than anything else. Wahlberg dives into the action brilliantly and brings out the best of everyone in regards to character development.
Ejiofor is very intimidating in his role and manages to give his character some additional layers of depth. Sophie Cookson does a great job with her role but isn’t really given much to do beyond provide exposition, leaving some missed opportunities for her character Nora. Cookson does have a pretty exception fight scene with Wallis Day’s Shin which was fun to watch. Jason Mantzoukas is definitely the film’s scene-stealer as Artisan. He brings a comedic flair to the film and makes his mark as he arrives late into the action.
Infinite would have been a perfect movie to see on the big screen, but with its debut on Paramount+, it means that it could find new audiences who might have wanted to check it on Wahlberg’s star power alone. Infinite is an intriguing sci-fi story with solid action and is a fun popcorn movie to fill a summer night.
Infinite is now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
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