Infinite

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mark Wahlberg

Released: 2021 Run time: 106 Mins. Director: Antoine Fuqua Rated: PG13

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Sophie Cookson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dylan O'Brien

I would first like to say: I wish we had seen more Dylan O’Brien. I love that kid. I sadly am a trailer boy and when I saw the trailer my first thought was ‘man, we had ‘The Old Guard’ already and I just want a sequel’. My second thought was ‘Dylan O’Brien looks bad ass with that sword. I’ll watch just for that’. I was sadly disappointed.

Based on a 2009 by D. Eric Maikranz titled “The Reincarnationist Papers”, Infinite follows Evan McCauley is a man struggling with what he believes is mental illness. But he is in actuality a man reincarnated many times over, the last in the form of Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner series) , whom we see at the beginning of the film in a car chase we have seen before. His (original?) name is Heinrich Treadwell, an agent of a group of Infinites called “Believers", an Infinite group that believes they exist to preserve all life. His former friend Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave) is the leader of the “Nihilists”, an Infinite group seeking to end all existence so that he can finally die and end the reincarnations by wiping out all life at once. The device being “the egg”. They attempt to explain the workings of the device, but that fails, as does this movie to innovate and be unique.

McCauley forges swords, folding iron into steel 27 times, and selling them to trade for his meds from a drug dealer. The deal goes bad and he is caught and arrested by the police, catching the attention of Bathurst who has been searching for him and the “Believers” who are as well. He is interrogated by Bathurst who is very agitated that Evan does not recognise him or have any realization of his reincarnations. In his last life Treadwell hid the egg before being killed. One of the “Believers”, Nora Brightman (Sophia Cookson, Kingsman: The Secret Service) rescues him by a ridiculous prison break including a car and a drive through a police station.

She and the rest of the group help Evan remember he is Treadwell and to remember where he hid the doomsday device. Evan eventually regains his memory and his “Infinite” power.

Some of the other notes I wrote during the viewing: Self “gasoline-boarding”?; Bathurst steal the souls of the reincarnated and storing them on a computer hard drive; O’Brien reincarnated as Wahlberg. The VFX was highly disappointing, the slow motion over utilized. Bathurst’s plan would not have been embraced by all his Nihilists. The movie was sloppy and I am disappointed by Fuqua, the man who made Training Day. And the lack of Dylan O’Brien is unforgivable. Streaming on Paramount+.

In Retrospective ★★☆☆☆