Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie Review)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (UK Rating: 12A)

That's not a criticism, more a statement of fact. Director Joss Whedon has decided to go out with a very loud bang for this, his second and last Avengers movie, and seems to have thrown just about everything at the film. There's no kitchen sink, yet one scene has a bath being put to very good use! What this will leave for his successors, the Russo brothers, to play with when they make Avengers: Affinity War (due in 2018) remains to be seen but, in the meantime, this outing for the superheroes is so full of action and special effects that there's only just enough time to draw breath between one set piece and the next; it's relentless, spectacular and brilliantly choreographed.

The gang's all back - Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, plus some new members of the team - and, as ever, they have a deadly villain to sort out, but this time there's none of the mischievous humour of Loki. Ultron (superbly voiced by James Spader) is a very different, and infinitely more sinister, proposition. An advanced form of artificial intelligence, he's a huge, muscular looking android originally designed to protect the world, and secretly kick-started by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Junior). He's woken up bitter, twisted and very, very angry, though, which means it falls to the Avengers to pull all their powers together to defeat him.

Saying that, though, the movie isn't totally about action, with some of the main characters also given a back-story to develop them further. The burgeoning relationship between Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hulk isn't the best of them and does little to develop their characters or take the action forward, but the discovery of Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) family, secreted in a rambling country house, adds a new dimension to the superhero and gives the film something approaching an emotional core.

The rumours have been legion about a mysterious clip right at the very end of the credits, but don't be taken in, since there isn't one. There is a fleeting glimpse of the future between the main cast list and the full credits, though. Who or what it is won't be revealed here - but it does look very familiar.

9/10

Exceptional - Gold Award

Marvel - and Joss Whedon - have done it again! Avengers: Age of Ultron is over two hours of thunderous action, impressive special effects, a wonderfully cold villain, and some emotional intelligence for good measure. On this showing, Marvel isn't just still at the top of its form, it looks like staying there for some time.