AVENGERS AGE OF ULTRON

I have to confess I didn’t think the director, Josh Whedon (Avengers Assemble ,X-men ,Captain America the First Avenger) could pull it off a second time, given the different directions and plot strands of this movie whilst also keeping the momentum of Avengers Assemble going. He has, however, proved me wrong. Obviously his primary motivation with Age of Ultron was not only to keep the momentum going but also to move things forward into new unexplored territory. Following the consequences of one mistake made by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) the film highlights the team’s spiral into their deepest fears by the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen ). This is all orchestrated by the film’s main protagonist, Ultron (James Spader), who apart from being immensely powerful, also shares Stark’s superpower of pithy one liners. Seeing the team that we last saw standing strong at the end of Avengers Assemble being torn apart is a really effective way of giving the heroes a new type of threat to overcome. We’ve observed them overcome physical threats, now they have to face up to psychological ones as well. Of course there are still action scenes a plenty; one of the highlights being a fight between Iron Man and The Hulk that uses an entire city as the backdrop for the choreographed mayhem. My only real complaint is that the finale, though a different scenario, is not a million miles away from that of the first film (the team fight off hordes of metallic creatures whilst defending a civilian population). Perhaps, inevitably, in an ensemble piece some characters feel underused as if they are only there to tick the cameo boxes. These are, I admit, only small complaints in what is otherwise pure entertainment. If this level of quality is maintained for the planned third and fourth instalments in the franchise then it is difficult to imagine them failing. FINAL VERDICT 9/10 let’s just hope they don’t strike out with number three.