Rating: I feel like Infini and I got off on the wrong foot. Its title frustrated me, being one of those made-up words just doesn't sound right when it's spoken out loud; the most common response to me mentioning the film to people was "Is that like 'Infamy' but with an 'N'?" to which I routinely had to reply that it's actually 'Infinity' with a missing 'TY', before moving on to describe the plot (oh God). Regrettably, the confusing title is among the biggest talking points surrounding Infini - a run-of-the-mill sci-fi horror that merely skims its central themes about the nature of humanity. Infini is set in the not-too-distant future, when people are sent from Earth to work on mining colonies in distant corners of the galaxy. Whit Carmichael (Daniel MacPherson) is a coder who is assigned to a particularly remote outpost called Infini, with his goal being to earn some money so he can start a new life for his pregnant wife. When a biological outbreak occurs at the colony, Whit is the lone survivor, and a squad of search-and-rescue toughs are beamed over from Earth (using a nonsensical instantaneous transport method called 'slipstreaming') to rescue him. With Whit's help, the team must also prevent a payload from reaching Earth that could have disastrous consequences for the planet. Inevitably, things go wrong, and everyone gets infected with the source of the biological outbreak - a highly intelligent 'primordial ooze' which seeks to mimic humans in an attempt to evolve beyond the state of viscous, translucent goop. Upon infection, some of the squad immediately turn into raging berserkers, while Whit and a few others are more resistant, and try to find a way to get off the forsaken colony before they turn. The early moments of Infini show some visual promise, as we see a vast futuristic cityscape outside Whit's apartment that recalls the noir vistas of Blade Runner and Dark City. Unfortunately, this is the one point in the film where the viewer isn't confined to generic metallic corridors and sterile labs. Which would be fine if the drama happening within this dour setting was engaging. Yet much of Infini's drama entails people screaming at each other in rage as they succumb to the effects of the infection then seeking to smash each others' heads in. Blood gets spilled, people die, but you're left wondering if there's a deeper purpose to it all. Director-writer Shane Abbess clearly wants there to be. The infected in the film occasionally quip about the meaning of life, choice, and existence - as if the ooze is trying to understand the strange alien life form that is humankind. This is an intriguing idea, but ultimately executed far too chaotically to take hold - with the infected usually getting killed before they really have a chance to sit down and ponder the universe (they are uncontrollably violent, to be fair). Amidst the flat squaddie dialog ("We better get a really big paycheck for this", "I feel like I've got the worst hangover in the history of forever") and bland corridors there are a few glimmers of brightness. Luke Ford puts in an entertaining performance as the rapidly-deteriorating grunt who teams up with Whit. Daniel MacPherson, meanwhile, does a decent job of portraying a man desperate to stave off his descent into ultra-violent madness. Infini was certainly not dead-on-arrival, but it reveals its most meaningful plot point - the sentience of the infectious ooze - far too late into the film to do anything with it. The film's attempts to explore themes about the nature of humanity and 'Life' are reduced to the to occasional earnest statements, rather than elegantly woven into the plot, leaving you feeling pretty empty by the time you reach its contrived twist-ending. Infini is in UK cinemas from 18th September.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
