What follows is a globetrotting attempt to discover Ultron's aims and stop him, a quest of considerable complexity and endless property damage (there's a Marvel spin-off show to be made about what the age of superheroes has done to worldwide insurance premiums). Tinged with madness from the start, Ultron (James Spader) emerges hating his creators and sure that the best way to save humanity is to destroy it. It’s her opening strike at Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) that magnifies his post-Avengers trauma and causes him to behave even more recklessly than usual, enlisting an unconvinced but amiable Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to create the peacekeeper A.I. The catalyst for much of the conflict is Elizabeth Olsen’s uncanny Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, who along with her super-fast twin brother Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), attacks the Avengers and causes them to see their worst fears brought to life, whether in memory or prophecy. But even our pole star, Chris Evans’ Captain America, finds his faith sometimes shaken here. The characters still spark off one another and seem, for the most part, to enjoy one another’s company.
Inevitably for a blockbuster sequel of this sort, it's a little darker. Whedon deserves something easier to do next, like a musical version of War & Peace he could direct while lace making. And this is not just the finale of Phase Two but a foundation stone for the next five or so films, a mind-boggling challenge, and a stunning achievement.
The cast has swollen to enormous proportions (the roll call of Avengers and allies is now 18, counting cameos) and the action has gone truly global.
Age Of Ultron makes its triumphant, giddily enjoyable predecessor look like a secondary school production of Our Town. Joss Whedon’s mistake was to make the job look so easy, and his reward was an exponentially harder task. A few years back, making Avengers Assemble work looked daunting: bring together four franchise leads and two supporting characters, plus bad guy, and make it watchable for those without a PhD in Comic Book Backstories.
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