Infinite (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Deemed the debut Paramount+ Original film, Infinite seemed to originally be a movie that had a planned theatrical release. Pandemic notwithstanding, the film came and went on the service, leading me to believe Infinite to possibly be inferior. Read more on the film below, and at the end, be sure to click the paid link to secure your copy of Infinite at a great price!
Film 
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, a secret group that call themselves “Infinites” come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it.
Opening with a complete set of characters we don’t see again, Infinite starts on an interesting note. With an interesting and exciting car chase involving evading someone looking for an “egg”, Treadway (Dylan O’Brien) along with two teammates lead a chase through Mexico City in 1985. The chase itself is exhilarating, fast and fantastic, as we make our way to the title card. After the jump, we meet McCauley. Looking for a job as a restaurant manager, we learn that he has some mental health issues that require him to medicate and use methods of calm to keep his composure. We learn Evan has anger issues, and schizophrenic tendencies and without meds, “$h*% gets real.’ More on that later. In his spare time, Evan makes swords for his medication supplier who, implausibly plans to test the sword’s sharpness on his crackhead girlfriend… Ho ho – and then things really do get real… or do they?
As we evolve through the story of Evan’s life, we forget about Treadway and his teammates, and meet Bathurst (Chiwetal Ejiofar), a mysterious man who calls McCauley Treadway and asks him to remember items he has with him, asking him to remember who he once was. McCauley of course doesn’t get this, but during the impromptu interrogation, McCauley is rescued by Nora (Sophie Cookson), who tells him about Infinites, people who are reborn and rediscover their pasts in their current lives. They continue to evolve into two factions. The Believers who use their remembrances for good to make the worlds better, while The Nihilists (Big Lebowski reference aside…) consider the fact of remembrance of past lives as a curse. Of course, the two factions are eternally at war, across their lives, and in this 2020 version, McCauley is actually Treadway, and Bathhurst killed him way back in 1985 in Mexico City. All that tied up, and now we’re caught up… the battle continues…
Now, I did in a couple of paragraphs what Infinite spreads across an achingly slow 106 minutes. Had the filmmakers (including a very out of his depth Antoine Fuqua, and a nearly soulless Mark Wahlberg) chosen to build a different story (maybe about O’Brien’s version of Treadway…) that we may have had a better movie. What we do have, is a slice of 21st century cheese. There is no actual plot development, nothing twisting or turning and a very depressingly bad film overall. Nobody in the piece seems to be enjoying themselves, and it feels like a lot of money was spent to make a cheap looking, poorly executed would-be blockbuster.
Video
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Layers: BD-66
Clarity/Detail: Infinite has the luxury of being a film made for the 4K format. While it’s not a good film generally, it’s a good-looking film, with sharp detail throughout. Clarity is so good, the postproduction CGI is often tellingly bad, and for me, that can be distracting. For others, this may not be the case, and the look of the film lends itself to that crisp 4K resolution we all look for when we pick up these discs.
Depth: As with the clarity of the presentation, the depth of field is very good too. There are some issues pertaining again to the poor CGI, but nothing to turn you off the look if you can get past those effects.
Black Levels: Black levels lend themselves to the nice presentation, with nothing lost in the darkness and shadows. There are scenes taking place in darkness or nighttime throughout, and this is a fine showcase of how blacks should look.
Color Reproduction: Infinite will not set TVs ablaze with its color palette, but what’s represented does look quite good, with natural hues throughout, and the colder colors looking even, cool and just right.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones appear natural throughout the presentation, with nobody looking out of place, of course, except for unnatural CGI.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Dynamics: Infinite arrives on disc with a solid, hefty mix in Dolby Atmos. Sounds are often everywhere during the duration, with everything coming out of the correct speaker, with nothing lost to sound effects or location issues. This is far from a flat mix, and if you like the film, you’ll love how it sounds. You may like how it sounds even if you don’t like the film.
Height: Infinite has a static mix, so height sound effects appear like an appendix to standard surround speakers. All told, the heights don’t have a ton to do, but they sound good doing what they do do.
Low Frequency Extension: The sub is the savior to this mix, with deep punishing bass going to sound effects, car wrecks, gun blasts and more.
Surround Sound Presentation: The surrounds work to keep the action all around the listener, placing them right with The Believers and doing a great job of putting us all in the center of everything.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is nice and clear, but it isn’t too great, so it feels like wasted time.
Extras
Infinite comes home on 4K disc in a simple package with glossy slipcover and a digital code. Along with the basic swag, we have some EPK-like featurettes which are, as described by the PR:
- They Call Themselves Infinites—Join the cast and crew for a deep dive into the concept of reincarnation, character development, creative direction, and set design.
- The Kinetic Action of Infinite—Get a behind-the-scenes look at the vehicles, stunt drivers, and technology used to achieve the exhilarating action scenes in the film.
- Anatomy of a Scene – Police Station & Forest—An in-depth look with the cast and crew at the creation of two of the film’s major scenes that helped shape the story and pave the way for the climactic ending.
- Infinite Time—Explore the creation of the film’s ground-breaking effects, including a breakdown of the on-set fight action and the stunning visual effects work employed in post-production.
All featurettes are presented in 4K and are basic and add a little depth to the production.
Summary
In the end, Infinite is a “film” that feels like it was seen by test audiences or executives that saw what utter crap the film might have been and said it would be better seen at home on TV. With all that I saw, I felt like Infinite was a waste of talent, energy, money and time. For me, this is a career low for all the established cast and crew, and a wasted opportunity for a premise that could’ve been incredible. Skip it, or at the very most, rent it. Technical merits aren’t worth the waste of time you’ll endure.
