BOOM May2015 | Page 31

H O L LY WO O D MOVIE REVIEW review : Avengers: Age of Ultron T he Marvel Cinematic Universe has its own set of ground rules and worldwide admirers. The two feed off each other. And that explains why the world conjured up by these films is the way it is.Avengers: Age of Ultron, follow-up to 2012's Avengers, springs no surprises. It is mindful of the reality of the sacrosanct formula, and it does not scrimp on delivering exactly what is expected of it.Age of Ultron is an overload of eye-popping action sequences featuring an all-star team of superheroes, plus a couple of new entrants with unique powers. Everything out here is humongous and unashamedly show-offish as the comic book messiahs go about the task of ridding the world of a renegade robot bent on wiping human beings off the face of the earth.Destruction is the keyword here: the more the merrier. Indeed, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a non-stop carnival of devastation. Flying rubble, collapsing buildings, exploding vehicles: mayhem assumes varied forms here. In the midst of the pyrotechnics and slugfests, the film pauses on a few occasions to provide passing insights into the back stories and current predilections of the key characters. Of course, there is a whole bunch of them - Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and, of course, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Avengers: Age of Ultron has two new additions, the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen), who start off as adversaries (they have a score to settle with Stark) before joining the team as the lightning fast Quicksilver and the fire-hurling Scarlet Witch.For good measure, thrown into the pot are two unusual sidelights: a romantic track involving Natasha and a glimpse of the blissful domestic domain of Hawkeye and his ever-dependable family. Coming to the broader rules of this universe, even when matters turn outright outlandish, the fans