Infinite - Lebe unendlich

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I really appreciate Antoine Fuqua's career as a director. From the beloved classic Training Day to the highly entertaining The Equalizer films, Fuqua has demonstrated skillful handling of action sequences. As expected, Infinite delivers several fighting scenes and car chases, mostly riveting and quite enjoyable. The third act gets extremely over-the-top concerning the action set pieces, which are only tolerable due to a special yet underdeveloped character trait that ultimately justifies the more absurd moments. Mauro Fiore's camera work and Conrad Buff IV's editing are decent enough, but the last act features too much shaky cam and excessive cuts for my taste.

Story-wise, that's where things get tricky. Ian Shorr's screenplay boasts a genuinely interesting premise with exciting world-building to support it. However, the tiresome voice-over from Mark Wahlberg - who offers a good performance just as the rest of the cast - holds heavy exposition that's then repeated in dialogues across the movie, stretching the runtime unnecessarily. This narration rarely adds anything relevant to the story or impacts the viewer's opinion about the protagonist.

In addition to this, it's one of those films that carries tremendous storytelling potential but never reaches it. Personally, I truly find the concept intriguing, but its development doesn't leave the base of its premise. In fact, just by watching the main trailer, most of the world-building is given to the audience in those few minutes. Honestly, in better hands, this movie could have been the beginning of a new franchise with infinite - no pun intended- possibilities to make sequels, prequels, spin-offs, or even trigger the start of a TV show.

As it is, Infinite is nothing more than an inoffensively entertaining flick that could have been much, much better.

Rating: C.

It's an expensive amalgam of cliches.

Flat in many levels, especially acting and plot wise.

It's maybe a good "sunday afternoon" movie if you want to waste some time.

"Infinite" is a brainless and senseless action-sci-fi film. The flawed plot is a complete mess, without character development, but based on an interesting premise: an original view of reincarnation. Unfortunately, the reason why the villain Bathurst, performed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, does exist is amazingly stupid. Bathurst wants to destroy the mankind and all the living things on Earth since he has been bored of reincarnating for three hundred years. However, he has a bullet that holds the souls of who is shot in a chip, avoiding the soul to reborn and reincarnate again. So why doesn't he commit suicide with this bullet and avoid all the troubles. What is the purpose of existing The Believers other than seek out for the egg to avoid the destruction of life on Earth? Therefore, to like the story, the viewer needs to turn off the brain and watch the good CGI only. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Infinito" ("Infinite")

After finishing watching a movie I always ask myself if I was entertained. In the case of Infinite I would be lying if I said no. It was entertaining, even with some severe plot holes, and scenes that didn't make much sense. It's just an interesting concept for a plot, maybe not perfectly executed, but still it was pleasant to watch. The cast was good, no complaining about that, so honestly I don't get all the extreme negative reviews. What do you expect from a sci-fi movie? It to be realistic? I don't. I just want to sit down, relax, and enjoy the show. That's what I did. Is Infinite going to be remembered? Probably not. Do I care? Certainly not.

You can tell that this script was taken from a book and was pressed into a 1h 45min runtime for Hollywood.

Result: Unintelligent plot without enough character development, over the top acting, silly one-liners and too much bang-bang to cover up the plot holes and the inconsistencies.

Some good things: A few of the actors seem to have tried to take the material seriously. Also, the photography is up to par here with great sets and beautiful visuals.

And most of the action sequences are impressive.

So these are a few reasons to watch if you want to switch off and just kill some time with this mindless flick. I personally didn't hate it but...the plot...can't be saved.

Maybe if it was 2,5h long it could have been a bit better...? We will never know.

5,9/10.