The problem with creating the third most successful film of all time is that people will want you to do it all over again - only bigger and better. Such is the luck of director Joss Whedon, who likened the task of helming this $250 million behemoth to playing “Vulcan Chess.” Herding cats might be a better metaphor, as he now has to wrangle not only returning superheroes Iron Man (Robert Downey Junior), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansen), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), but three new superheroes, a new villain, sundry supporting characters, and then wrap them all up into a cohesive movie that doesn’t break two and a half hours. No pressure.
After a bravura opening scene, that sees the Avengers team storm the snowy mountain fortress of bad guy organisation Hydra, Iron Man puts into action plans to let himself and the rest of the Avengers retire early by creating an army of robots that would keep the world safe. "Peace in our time", he declares, echoing Neville Chamberlain's similarly inaccurate statement of 1938. It goes pear shaped almost immediately, of course, as the Ultron artificial intelligence created by Stark and Bruce Banner decides, after weighing the matter up for about a nanosecond, that the real threat to world peace is, in fact, all those pesky humans running around. Best to build itself a shiny robot body and squash them all like ants. Nothing is more peaceful than a cemetery.
Complicating the matter are two new antagonists twins, out for revenge against the sins of Tony Stark’s arms-dealing past. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, both given powers by Hydra, otherwise known as Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elisabeth Olsen) Maximoff, memorably summed up as "He's fast and she's weird.” Her mind-manipulation sets the Avengers against each other as Ultron gathers his forces, a never-ending legion of robots he controls, and puts his scheme for human extinction into place. One criticism of the Marvel movies has been the dullness of its bad guys. The smirking, malevolent Loki aside, most of them have been duds. A bad guy who is all CGI isn't a promising development, but the genocidal Ultron fares better than most. James Spader's voice work gives Ultron a whimsical intelligence and high-strung instability that makes for a satisfying antagonist.
Things blow up real good in exciting bursts of superhero action that detonate in expensive, well-choreographed scenes of mayhem. Interspersed with these are thoroughly enjoyable scenes of the Avengers bickering, swapping jokes and tentatively feeling their way around at least one budding romance. For all the money spent on effects, the superbly cast team of heroes is the real delight of the movie. The smart, witty script gives the cast excellent material to bat back and forth and pulls proceedings up smartly before they can descend into stock action heroics. “Good talk,” quips Iron Man after taking out a room full of bad guys, a joke that would feel at home in any third rate action movie. “No, it wasn’t,” whimpers back one of the knee-capped foot-soldiers, giving it the extra twist of humour that makes it rise above cliché.
First among equals in the Avengers is Iron Man. The extra star wattage Robert Downey Junior commands means he’s front and centre on the movie poster, and receives slightly more screen time than the rest. Happily, since he's the most charming and enjoyable character in the movie, this is no bad thing. It's Tony Stark's arrogance in trying to save the world that fuels the plot, and mainly his wit that adds levity to the big, CGI fight scenes that might otherwise turn into a loud, relentless, expensive bore. But, with the possible exception of Thor, every member of the Avengers gets their own satisfying time in the sun. A nascent romance between Black Widow and Bruce Banner is touching and full of genuine warmth; Hawkeye's peripheral role in the first movie is entirely corrected as he becomes the heart of the team; Captain America comes to terms with being a man out of time. New characters Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver get time and space to breathe as well, and even a supporting character like Don Cheadle's War Machine, who is in exactly three scenes and gets maybe two minutes of screen time in total, still gets one of the best running gags of the movie.
Parts of the movie seem to be wagging a disapproving finger at the rival superhero franchise building attempts over at DC/Warner Brothers. The nihilistic, bloodless destruction of a city that ended the Superman reboot, Man of Steel, is entirely absent. These heroes actually save folks. "This is my job," as Hawkeye flatly puts it during a lull in the stormy climax, moments before heading out to face killing machines with only a bow and arrow. It's a telling and entirely welcome reminder of what a superhero story should have at its heart: heroes willing to put themselves between harm and other people. It lends heart, and helps ground a movie about people who can fly and shoot lasers from a magic stone in their forehead.
What Marvel and Joss Whedon have done with Age of Ultron is create a comic-book artefact in cinematic form. It's the epic summer event Marvel comics push out every year, and, just like in the comics, seeds are sown for the next big event along the way, to keep you coming back for more. Instead of a set of discrete films, each to be taken or left on their own terms, Marvel are building a continuum of movies, each linked to the next, each designed to be satisfying in and of itself but also designed to hook you into the next one. Here and there plot threads dangle so later films can pick them up. Your appetite is both sated and whetted for the next dish. Unless you find superheroes not to your taste at all, in which case, looking at the many, many Marvel movies scheduled for release, you are completely out of luck. But when the meal is this tasty, this full of fun, action and wit, it feels churlish not to tuck in.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is on general release right now.
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