Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

** ½ out of ****

When “The Avengers” came out in 2012 I figured it must be pretty awesome. I like superhero movies, and everyone and their kid brother were going to see it multiple times, and it had Robert Downey Jr., so what could be bad?

Then I went to see and and, much to my surprise, I became one of the few voices saying, “.....meh.” Not the worst movie ever, but if I correctly recall what I said at the time, “Superman” (1978) and “Spiderman 2” (2004) were in no danger of being usurped as the greatest superhero movies ever.

Along comes 2015 and the much anticipated sequel to “The Avengers” has hit theatres. My 10-year-old son was very antsy to go see it, so I braved the crowds and did the “opening weekend” thing. What did I think of it?

….Meh.

The Avengers are now more of a cohesive unit, more cooperative and certainly zinging the one-liners with greater frequency. Bruce Banner and Black Widow are on the verge of a physical relationship (really Widow, you really want to see what happens to this guy when he gets horny?) but other than that the team dynamic seems pretty stable considering the fall of “Shield”.

But we can't leave well enough alone, and Tony Stark and Banner are working on a global defense program that suddenly becomes self-aware (Ultron, voiced by James Spader) and instantly becomes everyone's archenemy. For some reason he feels the world needs an extinction level event to save itself, so he immediately starts working on a diabolical plan to kill all of humanity.  And I thought HUMANS were judgemental.....

Also new to the story are some kind of weirdo wonder-twins. Not being a comic-book reader I had to be told that they were Quicksilver (wasn't that a Kevin Bacon movie?) and Scarlett Witch. Whoever the hell THEY are...... They start out as bad guys who think they're good guys but eventually join the side of right. Samuel L. Jackson makes an appearance reprising his role as Nick Fury, but I have to be honest – at no time did I ever feel like I was watching anything of any consequence.

Perhaps it is a positive thing that it was almost an hour into the film before I first looked at my watch.....

There is lots of action. The special effects are amazing and the script is very balanced. All the characters are given fair treatment, no small feat considering the number and size of some of the stars involved. Downey is easily the most entertaining of the bunch, but overall this was just more of the same. The villain (Ultron) was about as compelling as a foot fungus, and it was clearly designed to suit the comic book set rather than be a really good feature film.

I am giving it (generously) 2 and a half stars, but only for the strength of the production values and the performances. This film is tremendously inconsequential – if you don't rush out and see you aren't really missing much. I haven't watched the original a second time, and I can't imagine I will bother to view this one again either. If you're into this kind of thing you'll enjoy it; if comic book movies aren't your thing, this shouldn't be much more than a blip on the radar.