Critics hail Marvel-lous Avengers
Critics have marvelled at the latest Avengers film as its stars reassembled for the blockbuster’s hotly-anticipated premiere.
Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the follow-up to 2012’s Avengers Assemble which grossed more than $US1 billion ($A1.30 billion) at the box office, was warmly received by film critics, with superlatives ranging from “thrilling” to “turbocharged”.
The positive reception will be welcome news for the film’s biggest stars Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans, who appeared at the UK premiere in west London on Tuesday night.
Kate Muir from the Times newspaper, awarded the film four out of five stars.
She said: “Poised to be the box-office blockbuster of the year, Avengers: Age Of Ultron delivers the usual superhero suspects - the muscled six-pack of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Black Widow and the Incredible Hulk - in a slick, if over-long, adventure that bungee jumps between banter and action.
“The action is turbocharged from the start, with a forest battle reminding those who lack a PhD in Marvel comic studies of the characters’ powers.”
David Edwards, for British newspaper the Mirror, also awarded four stars and said: “It’s a thrilling but occasionally exhausting experience that threatens to overload the senses. Still as you’d expect, the effects are dazzling, particularly when seen through 3D glasses.”
And Robbie Collin followed suit from the UK’s Telegraph by bestowing the film with four out of five and saying he thought it felt “short”.
“The result is a lot of everything, but the film never feels overcrowded: in fact, it’s the interplay between the film’s many different characters, rather than the blow-up-the-world crisis they’re trying to defuse, that keeps you on the edge of your seat,“ he said.
Industry journal Variety called it a “super-sized spandex soap opera that’s heavy on catastrophic action but surprisingly light on its feet, and rich in the human-scale emotion that can cut even a raging Hulk down to size.”
The sequel sees the Marvel Comics superheroes forced into action when a high-tech peacekeeping program - Ultron - goes badly wrong.
Avengers: Age Of Ultron opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday.
PA sw 22-04-15 1505
