There is a magnificent scene about midway into “Infinite” after Mark Wahlberg’s character is taken by Sophie Cookson’s character. Walhberg has no idea what is happening, but is going with the flow, and Sophie has just demolished, and I mean absolutely demolished beyond comprehension, a police station with a very fast and expensive car in an attempt to save Mark from a bad guy (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The scene begins as Sophie drives her very fast and expensive looking car into what appears to be an enclosed airport hanger with a very expensive looking plane in the background. The car, by the way, which has just been driven through multiple walls, sustaining multiple explosions with multiple gunmen firing at it, looks as though it has been driven off the dealer lot. But, I digress. Sophie stops the car, immediately gets out of the vehicle, and starts spewing exposition at Mark, who looks like he could care less. This is the best part here: Mark then gets out of the car and begins walking off into the distance. Where is he walking to? Where is he going in this enclosed airport hanger? Who the hell knows, but there he goes walking. Sophie’s character then starts speaking in other languages, and Mark stops for a bit, tells Sophie she is crazy, and begins walking off some more. Again, where does he think he is going? Sophie then spews some more exposition, adding in a “I’m real” dialogue for absolutely no reason at all, her existence was never in question. Mark again tells her she is crazy and is not making sense. Now, and I kid you not, just 10 seconds later, we cut to Mark boarding the expensive plane with Sophie. Mark has just chosen to leave behind his entire life to go learn about something he just said was nonsensical. This, my friends, is “Infinite” in a nutshell.

At best, this is a mindless film with cool, albeit bonkers, action sequences. At worst, this is an affront on eastern philosophy with mindless action, unenthusiastic acting/directing, and muddled characterization. I wholly expected something more from the great Antoine Fuqua. I think this is one of the worst films, if not the worst film, in Fuqua’s filmography. It’s as though Fuqua got up in the middle of filming this and just walked off into the distance. Where are you going man?

Mark Walhberg looked like he was forcing himself to act. Sophie Cookson was passable at best. Chiwetel was good, but his character really needed more purpose than: “I have to get out [of the reincarnation cycle].” Oh yes the plot…

So “Infinite” is about reincarnation and people remembering their past lives. You have “Believers” who use knowledge from their past lives to protect humanity, while the “Nihilists”, led my Ejiofor, are there to kill off all humanity and stop the cycle of reincarnation. The whole premise is pretty lazy considering how complex and interesting reincarnation really is, and the idea that the only way to stop the cycle of reincarnation is by killing off all of humanity completely misses the point of Nirvana. Furthermore, the idea of Karma (how doing good things now will manifest in later lives) is completely ignored. It’s as though this film cherry-picked eastern concepts that they thought were interesting, scrubbed off all of the history, complexity, and nuance associated with these ideas and smashed them together into a film. Completely unacceptable, but very much Hollywood.

There are also gigantic plot holes in the film. For example, Ejiofor is said to have developed a bullet that stops the cycle of reincarnation for those who get hit with it; he uses the bullet many times against “Believers” and we are told they no longer get reincarnated. Well, if Ejiofor is so distraught by his cycle of reincarnation (as he says he is in the film) then why doesn’t he just shoot himself with that special bullet? Why take all of humanity with him? He created a way for those who don’t want to get reincarnated to get out of the cycle, why not just use the path himself? Evil be evil I guess.

The cinematography by Mauro Fiore is probably the best part of this film. “Infinite” looks good, the visual effects were also really good. Despite his weak character, I also liked Chiwetel’s acting. The music by Henry-Gregson Williams was also alright. For those reasons this film is getting a start and a half. Other than that, “Infinite” is a glossy concept film that simply walks off into the distance; going nowhere, doing nothing.