Avengers: Age of Ultron
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo
141 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

How do you top a film that currently holds third place on the list of the highest grossing movies of all time and was critically acclaimed and loved by fans of all ages and nationalities?

Well, if you’re writer/director Joss Whedon you make a film that is bigger and ultimately deeper and darker; but at the same time you don’t fix what ain’t broke, resulting in one more amazing adventure for his most recent assembly of Avengers.

Not that they need introduction, but here goes: Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor, god of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth), Dr Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), superspy Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Agent Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

Whedon’s complete immersion into the Avengers’ canon means that he wastes no time with unnecessary exposition, while at the same time allowing any newcomers to the universe the chance to get a pretty good idea of who’s who and what drives them.

Within seconds of the film opening, we are unceremoniously thrown bang in the middle of the action as our team raids the mountainous hideout of Hydra villain Baron Von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) to retrieve Loki’s sceptre.

Sceptre found, the Avengers are ever-aware of the constant threat to mankind, and Stark elicits Banner’s help in restarting a peacekeeping programme of his dubbed ‘Ultron’.

Yet, the reprogrammed Ultron (James Spader) is far more powerful than Stark could have imagined and it is not long before this technological monster’s true ambition is revealed: to achieve world peace by bringing about human extinction.

So, another story where AI goes awry then. But never fear, we are safely in Whedon’s hands for he is master in pressing all the right buttons.

A super-hero movie is, by its very nature, a film full of super-heroics and Whedon’s contributions do not break the mould.

Performed with aplomb

As with the first Avengers, there is no dearth of breath-taking sequences, from the afore-mentioned opening raid to the thrilling conclusion, the action taking our heroes across the globe as they track this villain hell-bent on world destruction; with the super-powers, high-tech wizadry.

Yet in true Whedonesque form, this is as much about the characters as the adventure, and in among the barbs and laugh-out-loud lines are some deep character introspections, as the team negotiate the inevitable rift their latest nemesis causes.

Whedon is equally concerned with the characters’ internal journeys as they find the way back to each other to fight the good fight and struggle with the enormity of what it means to be a super-hero.

For at this stage of the canon, the characters are in a bit of disarray .

Stark is re-evaluating his life and his role as Iron Man, but his innate arrogance continues to manifest itself.

The god Thor wants to dedicate his life to protecting humanity; Captain America has just survived the destruction of Shield and his 1940’s war hero nature still struggles to come to terms with 21st-century realities; Banner continues to try and suppress the monster within.

The script affords some warm and intimate moments and is not afraid to display some sentimentality – an introduction to Barton’s family adds a slight semblance of normalcy, while the overt flirtation between Johansson’s Romanoff and Ruffalo’s Banner will give something to the romantics in the audience to swoon over.

It is once more a delicate juggling act which Whedon performs with aplomb. He does allow himself some self-indulgence – a hair-raising chaotic and destructive fight between Iron Man and Hulk seems to have been placed there simply for the fun of it… but I’m not complaining.

When all is said and done, he delivers another story-driven, character-based, highly entertaining and often thought-provoking blockbuster which will un-doubtedly be another enormous success story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; leaving us, as ever, wanting more.