Film: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 141 mins

WITH the Harry Potter and Twilight series a distant memory, Peter Jackson's forays into Middle Earth at an end and The Hunger Game poised for a dramatic conclusion this Christmas, the number of blockbuster franchises capable of setting the box office alight is dwindling. As the phenomenal success of Guardians Of The Galaxy last year attests, our appetite for films based on the Marvel Comics universe of superheroes shows no sights of abating, however, and this sequel to the 2012 action adventure Avengers Assemble is gearing up for the biggest opening weekend of all time. Director Joss Whedon is back at the helm with all the original cast for a spectacular reunion that will ultimately tear the superhero team apart and pit two great patriots against one another. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) hopes to jumpstart world peace using a dormant artificial intelligence program but he unwittingly unleashes the villainous Ultron (voiced by James Spader). Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) calls together his superhero team of Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to protect mankind from annihilation, testing the fragile bonds of trust between the team members in the process. Uneasy alliances are forged and the Avengers cross paths with mysterious and powerful siblings Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) aka Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who have been subjected to secret experiments by Hydra. The team also encounters an old friend in his new form as Vision (Paul Bettany) while Thor's duplicitous half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) continues to pull strings by adopting the appearance of other characters for his own nefarious means. Marvel films have a habit of holding back an additional scene for the end credit to whip fan boys and girls into a frenzy. Unconfirmed reports and internet gossip suggest that a certain web-slinging hero could make a brief appearance to announce his revival in this colourful world of heroes and villains. Keep your eyes peeled. The emotional fallout from Whedon's eagerly anticipated film should provide a neat set-up for the 2016 blockbuster Captain America: Civil War, which pits Steve Evans against Tony Stark and forces the other members of the Avengers to take sides against the governments of the world, who want to pass an act that will regulate all superhuman activity.