"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is huge in size and destined to be an enormous, record-breaking financial success, its $250-million price tag virtual pocket change next to the $1.5-billion-plus it will earn at the box office. If there is a sure thing in this world, it is this eagerly anticipated follow-up's international domination. With that said, returning writer-director Joss Whedon has a difficult time hiding how overwhelmed he is by the pressure of making something bigger and better than 2012's "Marvel's The Avengers." On this latter point, it shouldn't have been such a daunting task; as much as some viewers may have enjoyed the prior film, there was definite room for improvement in a picture that followed a decidedly by-the-numbers path and survived more or less on the novelty of seeing a wide range of Marvel superheroes joining forces onscreen for the first time. In crafting a second installment, Whedon has succumbed to the weight of this very undertaking, tossing too much muchness in front of the screen and crossing his fingers that it will stick. Some of it does, some of it doesn't, and most just comes off as forced.
When the Avengers team—that is, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)—narrowly retrieve Loki's powerful, much-coveted scepter from the clutches of Hydra, Tony and Bruce are surprised to discover that it harbors an artificial intelligence inside it. No sooner have they secretly built Tony's sentient global peace-keeping initiative, named Ultron (James Spader), when the advanced A.I. rebels and escapes with the scepter. Pulling two of Hydra's human experiments into his fold—vengeance-seeking twins Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), lightning-fast, and telekinetic mind-shredder Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen)—Ultron seeks to build an army of robot drones, destroy the Avengers, and ultimately lay waste to the planet's entire human population.
See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review
