Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - reviewed

Now a well-oiled team (even Stark when he's not well-oiled himself) the Avengers are taking care of the upper-management forces of Hydra that any Agents of SHIELD may have missed and in doing so are tracking down Loki's missing staff. Unfortunately, though they retrieve it, two other fateful factors come into play. One, Baron Von Strucker's 'experiments', Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are moved into play - their powers of hyper-speed and almost mystical telekinesis respectively - taking their toll on our heroes... and secondly, Stark decides that the gem at the heart of Loki's staff may be the key to finally bridging the difficulties he's had with creating the next step of AI technology to help police the world and make the role of the Avengers thankfully redundant. Stark, hiding his plans from everyone but Banner, doesn't realise that his efforts will be successful, but at great cost.

The Ultron project is now alive, has a new 'body' and has decided to fulfill its creator's wishes of making the world a better place... by removing humanity itself. Faced with a foe that can outfight and out-think them, just how far will the team go to protect humanity, which allies can they count on and what will rise from the ashes of what's left?

The problem with Age of Ultron is that while you can't fault its basic blueprint, it's not the sum of its, oh so many parts. A little like the malevolent Pinocchio that staggers into Avengers HQ and declares war on humanity, this is a film that doesn't lack ambition and chutzpah but tends to mechanically lurch rather than organically glide from obligatory set-piece to set-piece, connecting proceedings with snark and Stark. The opening sequence, with the Avengers attacking Strucker's East European base perhaps demonstrates the triumphs and tripwires of the production - the pace is exciting, the action in -your-face, the characters posing for the poster image and generally walking that fine line between modern screen action heroes and their original 2D source material... but there's so much ducking, diving, gliding and jumping that you become aware by default of some of the CGI joins, however well-disguised they might be.

Director Joss Whedon, perhaps knowing well in advance that this is his last Avengers rodeo, harnesses all the thoroughbreds and throws everything but the mutant-enhanced kitchen sink into the mix… and the result is a solid summer popcorn outing but also an overstuffed two and a half hours that could easily have been downsized in both the size of the ensemble and its running time to better streamline the result. While The Avengers was diligent in its character development, the sheer number of characters on show means that we never really get any emotional depth. At times it feels like an impressive commercial show-reel for the entire Marvel franchise with supporting players dropping in to say a quick hello and an endorsement… and to plant some subtle  seeds for the future. Yes, there's bee-stung lip-service to a Natasha Romanoff / Bruce Banner romance and we get to see Hawkeye's somewhat unexpected domestic life but while welcome they are largely reduced to an excuse for, admittedly well-scripted, banter and a few knowing looks between the thumps, kicks and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

Ultron himself is okay but, in all honesty, something of a disappointment. While the trailer promised us a sinister chrome-plated would-be Promethean God, what we have is more of your standard variety bad robot with daddy-issues - a Frankenstein monster meets thinking man's Transformer, if that thinking man is into greek tragedy (and one whose most notably lethal characteristic is James Spader's eloquent monologues - worth every syllable. But for all that he can multiply himself across several bodies and mayhaps the entire internet (except, conveniently getting nuclear launch-codes), he feels like he talks the talks rather than walks it. Sure, he can throw things... but so can Iron Man when he's sober.

That being said, there's still much to like here if you can keep your expectations separate from the expected box-office receipts. It obediently ticks every box on the tent-pole release scale and passes some less-than-subtle observations on global interventionalism... and by now the actors have played these roles so many times that there's an easy ensemble mood to proceedings that will likely win hearts and minds of those simply wanting a solid popcorn picture. Downey strides through scenes as the ever-confident Stark, the Hulk is perfectly pixelated and Mark Ruffalo brings the bittersweet humanity to Banner. Marvel fanboys and fangirls get plenty of in-jokes and it's all a welcome relief from the doom and gloom of DC's more sombre multiverse intentions.

The first Avengers movie felt like an obvious joining of the various Marvel dots and threads, a well-earned collision of their best hit-list to date. Though there have been a raft of subsequent solo-outing sequels for the likes of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man, Age of Ultron simply doesn't feel as 'necessary' - more the result of delicately negotiated commercial interests rather than the Marvel universe needing its cosmic punctuation again. In short, there's all the requisite ingredients on show and stirred vigorously and  it does what it says on the tin (-man) ... but ultimately it's very much a case of impressive payday rather than imperative pay-off.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out 23rd April from Disney...