Not perfect, but still an extremely enjoyable superhero flick

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2018)

Avengers 2 starts off very fast-paced - you're already in the midst of a battle and one of the first exchanges is a hilarious back-and-forth between Iron Man (Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Evans). It at once sets the scene for a great action film, but also helps to quickly re-introduce characters and their personalities. It's not essential to have seen the first movie, or even the 'Thor', 'Iron Man' or 'Captain America' films (and even 'Guardians of the Galaxy'), but they definitely help to add another layer of nuance and understanding to some events/characters.
The plot is pretty straight forward - Iron Man wants to protect the world by having his automated suits everywhere. This inadvertently creates artificial intelligence, which turns out to be Ultron (Spader) - who wants to protect Earth by helping it to evolve. This obviously involves wiping out the human species! The Avengers can't handle him - and with Scarlet Witch (Olsen) and Quicksilver (Taylor-Johnson/Kick-Ass) on his side (before they see his true intentions) - they have to re-group and learn to all work together again. The introduction of Vision (Bettany) is handled well and is a welcome one for future films.
One of the best aspects of this film is the characterisation - each Avenger gets some backstory and exposition, not just fight scenes. Hawkeye (Renner) probably comes off the best here, since he's often overlooked - he is after all just a guy who's a good archer! The Black Widow (Johansson) and Hulk (Ruffalo) 'romance' is odd and new, but doesn't necessarily work. However, it's good seeing Thor (Hemsworth), Iron Man and Captain America work as part of a team - especially when Thor and "Cap" combine to take out dozens of enemies at once!

Spader's voice is great as the voice of discontent with the human species. While the ending is a little reminiscent of 'Superman Returns', the film takes you on an entertaining ride through the Marvel universe - I still look forward to the next instalment(s)!