Avengers: Age of Ultron **** (2015, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner) – Movie Review

Writer-director Joss Whedon’s awesome Avengers sequel is a seamless technical triumph, transferring the adored comic book to the screen with astounding visuals, fabulous action and of course great characters and stars. It’s a huge credit to Shepperton Studios where it was filmed, and the Marvel and Disney studios, who came up with the $250million needed to make it and left one man to mastermind it.

There’s huge excitement, and sadness too, at this final gathering of the iconic old clan. Classy Robert Downey Jr is top billed as Tony Stark, who this time tries to jump-start a dormant peace-keeping programme but somehow the plan goes wrong and he accidentally creates a monster. James Spader has to act with only his wonderful voice as the villainous Ultron, who emerges with his terrible plans to take over the world, but he does a grand job.

Luckily, however, in the face of Ultron, Stark’s team of superhero buddies Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are all at hand to try to save the fate of the planet. These really are mighty heroes as played by this finest dream team of actors, going through their engaging, well-practised acts one more time together. We’ll all have our own idea of our favourite superhero, and there are plenty to chose from.

There are a lot of players new to the cast, but Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson make an excellent impression as new sibling baddies Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, and Paul Bettany is startlingly good in red face, quite a vision as The Vision.

Indeed, the movie is chokka with lots and lots of great comic book characters, actually rather too many for Whedon to control efficiently in his over-long, baggy screenplay. Yes, he wants to give fantastic value, and that he certainly does, but a little bit less would be more. The film starts and ends with a couple of big bangs of action excitement, but in between Whedon wants to go for humour, angst and drama. There’s a very chatty and soggy half hour in the centre of the movie that could effectively cut down to 20 minutes.

The humour’s fine, well placed and well timed, indeed more would be better, much more. These actors are up for witty banter and fun, and Whedon could have stepped this up a lot, but mostly he prefers to take it all a shade too seriously. Renner has most of the soapy stuff, with Linda Cardellini as Laura. It’s not their fault that this is dull material and their roles could be profitably slashed. Black Widow’s stuff with the Hulk could do with a trim, too, though Johansson and Ruffalo are good company and make it palatable.

The best of the soapy scenes is a party thrown by Tony Stark, who invites ancient war veterans along, giving Stan Lee a chance for his cameo, and highlighting in a ‘can you raise Thor’s hammer?’ sequence. It’s a tribute to the actors that this is actually funny and not just only silly.

Whedon is full of ideas and plotlines, but the strain of shoe-horning them all into one last movie shows. Not all the characters get their just screen time (for instance, what happened to Julie Delpy, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgård?) and the plot and situations aren’t always as clear on screen as they may have been in Whedon’s head.

This might work to the film’s advantage, however, as you feel there’s so much going on so fast that you need to see it twice to check it all out.

[Spoiler alert] Of course, it sets up the New Avengers at the end as the old team go their separate ways into the sunset. Sadly, unfortunately, everything has to have an ending and move on. The new team look promising, though not as though they’ll ever be able to replace the Old Avengers.

The 3D isn’t any help or hindrance, by the way.

It is followed by Avengers: Infinity War (2018), with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner all returning after all.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com