If you liked the first one, then...

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2015)

Second acts are tough and sequels are tougher; usually we get way too much of what made the first movie cool, so Joss Whedon had his work cut out for him when set out to make AVENGERS:AGE OF ULTRON, the followup to the his first outing with Marvel's premier super group.
What is good about ULTRON:
The characters and the interaction among them; Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye, and The Black Widow are back and doing what they do best: trade one liners and bicker while they throw down with the bad guys. Whedon uses dialog well to delineate the superheroes and the sharp differences between them, especially the conflict between men of science Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and men of action Steve Rogers and Thor. It's a real kick to see Robert Downey, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Scarlett Johansson in these iconic roles that fit them like gloves. This time Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff get a little more screen time and a some new insight into their characters, which is very welcome. Samuel L. Jackson is back as Nick Fury, a part he was born to play. Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Hayley Atwell, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smoulders all make appearances in roles they played in other Marvel superhero movies. A new addition is Andy Serkis as arms dealer Klaue, a familiar villain to Marvel readers. Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elisabeth Oleson are Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, mutants with very special powers who start out on the wrong side, but like so many of the misguided in the Marvel Universe, eventually see the light. Paul Bettany is not only the voice of Jarvis, but he shows up in the flesh (sort of) as the Vision.
The action scenes, which if they don't break in new ground, certainly kick it up a notch with the showdown between a Hulk who has had his mind messed with by The Scarlet Witch and Tony Stark in his Hulkbuster armor. The finale where the Avengers assembled square off with Ultron's mechanical minions is a real high point, as is the attack on Baron Struker's liar in the opening, proving that Whedon has learned the lesson the Bond film makers learned long ago: give them a big opening sequence and then top it in the finale. There's no Kirsten Dunst singing here.
James Spader as Ultron. His voice work is the whole show as the villain, a malignant AI, the result of Tony Stark's obsession with making the world safe from cosmic big bads. It helps that the various robot versions of Ultron do resemble Spader ever so much, specially capturing Spader's patented smirk. At times listening to Spader, I thought it was The Avengers vs Red Reddington from THE BLACKLIST.
What's not so great about AGE OF ULTRON: To start with, a killer robot or out of control AI is really nothing new, no matter how great the special effects. I know Marvel did this trope back when it was shiny and new, but it has gotten pretty tarnished by now; in fact it was starting to get stale back when ALIEN did it.
The plot which, consists of nothing much more than stopping Ultron, wears thin by the end, although it is covered up by the witty interaction between the heroes very well. Comic books are known for their wonderfully twisty plots and arcs, and they don't always translate well to the screen, but Ultron could have used a few more subplots. Maybe they should have gone with the Korvac sage instead.
Now that the rights to Spider-Man has been bought by Disney/Marvel, let's hope he shows up for the third Avengers movie; and when will we see Josh Brolin's Thanos take center stage after he and the Infinity Gauntlet show up in the post credit sequence?