Infinite
PARAMOUNTFormer Funky Bunch alumni, Mark Wahlberg, dips his toes into the action genre yet again with Infinite. He seems to feel at home here, punching the life out of henchmen or holding on to the hope that metal robots of a far-off planet will come and rescue him and his dumb friends. He portrays that well but is yet to receive the pay-off most action stars have after twenty years of plugging away in one genre. The time of the action star has far passed, and no sooner than it passed did the likes of Liam Neeson, Vin Diesel and Mark Wahlberg take up the reigns for this new era of gun-toting supremacy. Unfortunately, theirs has been a weak excursion, and Infinite highlights the simple, crucial problems the genre suffers from so frequently.
Its cold and calculated group of killers are a credible crew of famous faces, but their quality does not translate to consistency. Wahlberg stars as Evan McCauley, a walking action cliché out to avenge someone, get revenge on another, and make it through the ninety-minute experience with all limbs attached. A challenging task indeed for McCauley, as he appears danger-prone and full of wind. Infinite and director Antoine Fuqua bite off more than they can chew with this concept, and as they choke down on the mysterious figures lingering in the background and the sword-based mysteries, the film unravels rather rapidly. Chiwetel Ejiofor makes for a remarkably strong appearance, whose role as Bathurst provides an initial extravagance that soon fades away to broader problems.
Mashing up an egalitarian public image and a private, inevitably troubled past of studying the blade and bashing down bad guys, McCauley is no stranger to danger. It is a shame that the danger he often finds himself in is muted in style and dense in topic. Trading in swords and science fiction, there is an unnaturally dense blend of the two. Infinite has moments of mind-bending, reality-breaking action, but the point is lost under a thick layer of unintelligible direction. It is not as if Fuqua lacks experience here. Olympus Has Fallen, and The Equalizer each have remarkable merit to them, less so for the former, but the lingering effects of his direction in the Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum piece has abandoned him since.
Infinite may promise endless opportunities for the leading man and audiences, but its fun is limited and barebones at best. High-speed chases and adrenalin-pumping antics all set to the backdrop of a man who is an expert on hobbies and skills he has no knowledge of remembering. A somewhat thoughtful story is reduced to explaining why McCauley holds the necessary skills of a one-man army. At least they tried to give us an explanation, but they might as well have waived audiences away, spinning them towards a long shot of a car exploding or some filibuster mind-control. At least it looks cool, but that will do little to distract audiences from just how doltish it can be. Infinite is the third in a series of action-flick missteps for Wahlberg. Thankfully, his time in the genre will be finite. Well, hopefully...