Infini
DVD
Directed by Shane Abbess
Starring Bren Foster, Luke Hemsworth, Daniel MacPherson
R
2015
110 Minutes
These days, science fiction--when we get it--seems largely limited to the big screen, and usually with a big name or two attached to it, including a franchise big name of some kind. So when science fiction goes direct to video, it's always worth paying a little closer attention to. Infini offers us that direct to video science fiction some of us crave, but will it leave a bad taste in our mouths instead, a long-awaited treat gone sour?
Infini takes us out into the farthest reaches of space, where the titular O.I. Infini isn't having a great day. It's put out an emergency call, and a search and rescue team has been dispatched to find out what's going on, and clear it up as best as possible. Given that the Infini is currenly located adjacent to several black holes, it's a safe bet that nothing will be normal aboard it. When the first team returns in an unconsolable rage, it's clear that the Infini is shaping up to be more a death trap than a mining station. With a second team about to go in, will the Infini's secrets be revealed? Or will everyone involve fail to live to tell the tale?
A clever plotline, really; one part Aliens and one part Event Horizon, it should add up to an exciting little affair. I also hand it to the movie for a noteworthy setup: it declares that 95 percent of the world lives below the poverty line with the arrival of 2400 AD, and thus many turn to a variety of dangerous jobs in space: mining, exploration, or military operations. Kind of a far cry from Star Trek's vision of a utopia future with replicators and extra-solar settlement.
The good part is that execution lives up to the promise of the plot, for the most part. It's not perfect, no; there are some odd little glitches and plot holes that crop up. I'm not a hundred percent sure just what went wrong on this station or even how it gets fixed, but I know something really went bad wrong--or "badong," as they said in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, so let us all stand for the opposite of that: gnodab--on this station, involving what amounts to the basic building blocks of life. Weird. Fun, but weird. That's actually a great way to describe Infini in a nutshell: fun, but weird. Some great action, a nifty basic storyline, and one that goes off in some horrendous directions
The ending is a bit on the surreal side, but then, large portions of the movie were too, so it works out fairly well in the end.
Special features include audio options and a trailer for Infini.
All in all, Infini was quite a bit of fun that may have had its weak points, and kind of fell apart in the end, but it still delivered a pretty harrowing science fiction / action experience. I've seen much worse, and you likely have too, so anyone looking for a good quality slice of science fiction shouldn't be unhappy here.