A review by CJ Dee
In the 23rd century, 95% of the population live on or below the poverty line. This causes them to take on dangerous jobs outer space in fields like mining, military and exploration. The people who take on these jobs are transported via ‘slipstreaming’ — a process that converts matter into a data signal to a fixed point within the known universe.
One of the volunteers for this dangerous work, Whit Carmichael (MacPherson), is ready for his first day. A quarantine shuts down his base and he is the only person who survives by being slipstreamed to the furthest outpost. Things have gone very wrong there and Carmichael must make tough decisions to survive.
An elite search and rescue team is sent to retrieve Carmichael, but soon after finding him they are all infected with a parasite that drives them crazy. Now Carmichael must defend himself against the very people sent to save him.
It’s difficult to quantify Infini because I wouldn’t call it a B-movie and it’s certainly not the best science fiction film I have seen. The start feels clunky. Once the action kicks in and everything starts moving, it’s a decent space thriller. Then the ending feels rushed. It’s almost as though they decided it had gone for long enough and needed to wrap.
The plot is intriguing once you wrap your head around what is going on. It manages to move away from the majority of space thrillers, but only in terms of cause. All of the other key players are there — the isolation, the fear, the cold darkness of space, ‘who can you trust?’, and the blood.
The characters are two-dimensional, which may bother a lot of viewers. There are bits of backstory thrown in throughout the story to give the characters depth and to make the viewer care about them, but I didn’t feel it was particularly effective.
Overall Infini is a decent representation of the space thriller genre. I would recommend watching it if the chance arises. However, I wouldn’t recommend it as something to go out of your way to watch unless you really enjoy the space thriller genre.
Rating:
3 out of 5 stars
Director: Shane Abbess
Starring: Daniel MacPherson, Luke Hemsworth, Harry Pavlidis, Luke Ford, Bren Foster, Dwaine Stevenson, Grace Huang, Louisa Mignone, Kevin Copeland, Andy Rodoreda
Running time: 110 minutes
Watch this if you liked: Alien, Doom, The Thing
