article_snippet.sent: (CNN)The powers of Marvel's all-star superheroes go a bit wobbly in "Avengers: Age of Ultron.
article_snippet.sent: To be sure, series junkies will get series junkies fix from the sheer massiveness of the exploits, but at least two of the big action scenes are lackluster, while the climax and resolution could have been worked out in more complex, less rote ways, so as to further increase intrigue and anticipation for "Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2," already scheduled for release in May of 2018 and 2019, respectively.
article_snippet.sent: And so it is with "Avengers: Age of Ultron," which at moments takes a peek down some shadowy side roads but ends up mostly zooming along the main highway to deliver what the audience wants rather than something even a little bit different.
article_snippet.sent: Picking up where last year's "Captain America: Winter Soldier" left off, the new film, without preamble, dives right in to show the Avengers dispatching the remnants of the nasty HYDRA organization in a hectically and indifferently staged forest combat scene that leaves Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) worse for wear while also introducing two new adversaries, twins Pietro and Wanda
article_snippet.sent: Licking their wounds at the "safe house" of Hawkeye's farm, the Avengers the Avengers go into a funk.
article_snippet.sent: The impatient Thor quickly takes off "to find answers," Bruce resists Natasha's desire to get something physical cooking between them; Stark, lamenting that "Ultron is tryng to tear us apart," consults with old cohort Nick Fury
article_snippet.sent: While some of his partners wallow in disarray, Captain America heads for Seoul, where the next evolutionary step is to emerge via a device called "the cradle," which will hatch mass-produced android soldiers that will pave the way for Ultron's world domination.
article_snippet.sent: Of course, the Avengers ultimately get the Avengers together to do the kind of butt-kicking they're supposed to do, and a very welcome addition to the team comes in the form of the android called Vision.
article_snippet.sent: Red-faced and green-garbed, Vision is given a striking profile and overall presence by Paul Bettany (heretofore limited in the Marvel world to vocal work as Stark's computerized butler J.A.R.V.I.S.), and it can be hoped, if not assumed, that this most intriguing character will play an even more important role in the final two the Avengers installments. '
article_snippet.sent: Avengers: Age of Ultron" succeeds in the top priority of creating a worthy opponent for Avengers: Age of Ultron superheroes and giving the latter a few new things to do, but this time the action scenes don't always measure up and some of the characters are left in a kind of dramatic no-man's-land.
highlights_snippet.sent: Avengers: Age of Ultron' hits theaters