TV’s Daredevil is bringing Raid-like grittiness to the form. What next for Whedon and his all-stars? Guardians Of The Galaxy stole the wise-ass superhero template Ant-Man is likely to push in the same direction. But the best you can say about the film is that it’s efficient. There is some fun to be had: The odd verbal jab hits home (Captain America has loosened up), Spader’s voice work is terrific, and two Avengers are contemplating the world’s most ill-advised workplace romance. Age Of Ultron unfolds like every other comic book sequel you’ve seen: an opening battle, victory, complacency, cracks within the team, a “back to the basics" speech, rebuilding, and a final battle that decides Earth’s fate. It’s disappointing to see a director as playful as Whedon-the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly-resist the chance to mess with Hollywood formulae. It’s a long movie-2 hours, 20 minutes-and, in the second half, it feels like it. But the action sequences in Age Of Ultron are interminably long, and the banter has lost a lot of its bite there’s something depressingly Ocean’s Twelve about watching Hulk, Iron Man et al try and lift Thor’s hammer at a party. The Avengers worked because Whedon brought something of his wisecracking screwball personality to the genre, which was then in its dour, Christopher Nolan-inspired phase. And, to an extent, he succeeds-but there’s something missing. Whedon does all he can to keep the various balls in the air. Sure enough, Ultron comes to life as a killer-bot, and in James Spader’s even tones, declares that his mission is to save humanity (by killing everyone). As anyone who’s ever read a comic knows, when you mess with science, you get a supervillain.
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