How many superheroes does it take to make a movie? At this point, Marvel Studio¡¯s cinematic empire is getting so overpopulated that you¡¯d need a spreadsheet to keep track of who everyone is. There are over a dozen comic-book characters vying for attention in ¡°Avengers: Age of Ultron,¡± ¡ª some who have their own standalone films and TV series to promote ¡ª and the movie barely knows what to do with them all.
It¡¯s too bad that Robert Altman is no longer around to attempt to marshal this outsized ensemble. He might have been able to craft a more satisfying film than writer and director Joss Whedon has managed here ¡ª though perhaps even he would have struggled with this Marvel-mandated mission.
It¡¯s a lot harder to impose a creative mark now than it was for Whedon in his first ¡°Avengers¡± film in 2012, when he had more wiggle room. Though it clocks in at 141 minutes, ¡°Age of Ultron¡± has to spend so much time introducing new characters, joining dots and laying the groundwork for future films that it barely gets a chance to succeed on its own terms.
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