A for Avengers. A for Awesome!

Rating: 9/10 (22 April 2015)

Once upon a time the prospect of bringing The Avengers together as a movie seemed like a daunting task. Gathering the leads from four separate movie franchises plus two supporting characters and villain and doing it successfully was a potential challenge. Unfortunately for Director Joss Whedon, he made it look easy – the original Avengers was a massive success – the third highest grossing film ever which raised the expectations for sequels. Age of Ultron (AOU) arrives three years later – not just a follow up to The Avengers but also to 2014's superb Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CATWS), where the concluding events had massive repercussions in the Marvel Universe. Whilst it may not hit the fun heights of the original movie, this darker, grittier sequel raises the bar to a new level.
Following the collapse of SHIELD and criminal organisation Hydra in CATWS, The Avengers are now being funded by Tony Stark. Whilst on a mission to retrieve a Hydra weapon in Eastern Europe, a run-in with a pair of powerful twins, Wanda (Scarlett Witch) and Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver), Stark has a vision of the world's end and the Avengers dead. Convinced the world needs more protection than the Avengers can give, Stark, along with sceptical but willing Bruce Banner, discover technology that will help re-start a dormant Artificial Intelligence world defence programme called Ultron. Before long, Ultron takes form, becomes self-aware and decides that the best way for world peace is humanity's extinction.
After Ulton's escape, The Avengers aggressively pursue him across several countries in order to thwart his plans. With the Maximoff twins working alongside Ultron, The Avengers are thrown into disarray as their own fears and pasts come back to haunt them and begin to doubt their unity as a team.
The action comes thick and fast and only slows down occasionally to provide a few back stories for both Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who was criminally underused in the original film, and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The initial attack on Hydra's base is brilliantly executed as the camera follows each of the battling Avengers around a forest in one continuous action shot. We finally get to witness the Hulk well and truly off the leash as Iron Man is forced to bring in his "Hulkbuster" suit in order to take him down in a fantastic display of destruction. And of course there is the big action climax where director Whedon throws everything at the audience as The Avengers battle Ultron's endless army of clones.
It would be unfair to give away anymore plot details as this would ruin the twists in-store but AOU sets up the next five Marvel movies nicely in both subtle and obvious ways. The most amazing aspect of AOU is how each of the six Avengers get their own chance to shine – none of them are neglected – signs of a great writing team and director. New character Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) is a highlight and is just one of the new characters that will play a key role in the Marvel Universe. All credit has to go to director Whedon for handling such a monumental cast and making a movie on a scale not seen before as well as being laugh out loud funny throughout. A for Avengers. A for Awesome.