Still enticing as a sequel

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2015)

I was worried that this Avengers sequel would be less exciting than the first, given to understand it would not feature the favourite villain Loki and by now the thrill of having so many superheroes gather together would have worn off. I needn't have been so concerned; Marvel has successfully developed the characters of this (unlikely) team and added new elements such that the audience bask in the familiarity yet still enjoy the fresh chemistry of interactions among them. The "creation" of Ultron was natural given the megalomanic nature of Tony Stark - this somehow bringing out the moral that good intentions lead to hell - and the divergence and reaction of the team in face of self-created disaster was powerful drama. Since Ultron was too strong an adversary, allies and additions to the Avengers were necessary and these turns in the story did not, fortunately, have an artificial "forced" feeling to them. An interesting point was the twins were in fact characters from other tales of the Marvel universe, and Thor's hammer and "worthiness" was a recurrent joke. The use of stunts (given that Scarlett Johansson was eight months pregnant in the later part of filming) was masterly, and the resolution of the endgame crisis was much more realistic than other Marvel movies - with casualties, wounded hearts and broken spirits. Very good entertainment and I look forward to the next one in the series - did the post-credit scene suggest a marriage between the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy I wonder? In that case, sweet anticipation.