Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A) ***
THE ACTION, the slapstick and the whimsy is blended as the Avengers regroup in this latest superhero movie. And while it ticks enough boxes to satisfy as a blockbuster, you can't hide the fact that Marvel fatigue is setting in.
More worryingly, this sequel to the 2012 hit that became the third biggest-grossing movie of all time is simply nowhere near as good as its predecessor.
At least we've got a new villain this time. Ultron (voiced by James Spader) is a programme run on an ability to develop its own artificial intelligence. It's been created by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) who believes it's the only way of protecting Earth amid growing outside threats to the Avengers.
But when Ultron deduces that Earth would be best served by wiping out the human beings that inhabit it, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye have to band together to try and stop this deadly and powerful new force.
To add to the chaos, they're already battling a new threat closer to home at the hands of mind-bending twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen). As one of the main characters puts it, one’s fast and the other’s weird.
Add in a romantic subplot involving an underused Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo and you’ve got a bloated movie that throws everything at its 142-minute running time.
Avengers Assemble worked so well became there was no flab. The story was straightforward, the characters well developed from their individual films and the finale in New York felt genuinely epic.
There are some wonderful scenes here too and the party involving various characters grappling with Thor’s hammer is a standout. It's the chemistry between the characters and how they interact with each other that made the first Avengers movie special, and the spark is not quite as lively here.
The movie also suffers from the sheer numbers of superhero flicks we've had in recent years. We've had eleven involving Avengers characters alone from Disney/Marvel in the past seven years. It's difficult to maintain that sort of output and keep the ideas fresh.
Child 44 (16) ***
There are real problems with the execution of this drama thriller set in 1950s Russia. But a big-name cast manage to keep it (mostly) on track.
Still, the storytelling’s so muddled, and the script so patchy, that at times it’s hard to stay with the multi-layered plot.
Tom Hardy is excellent but brandishes a dodgy Russian accent as Leo Demidov, the charismatic secret police agent trying to make a name and a career for himself.
When his peers become suspicious that Leo’s wife, Raisa (Noomi Rapace) could be selling State secrets, his determination to defend her puts their marriage under strain.
Posted out of Moscow, to a grim northern town, the couple begin to investigate a possible link in the disappearance of a number of young boys - one of them a family friend whose death was listed as an accident. Only a local general (Gary Oldman) thinks there might be something to the claims.
There had to be promise in the script to get such a polished cast onboard, but as the plot synopsis suggests, Child 44 suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Part murder mystery, part political thriller, part marital drama, the story slopes around and doesn't always pull off its big ambitions.
At times its a somewhat clumsy adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s acclaimed novel and the uneven Russian accents from the cast also serve to hinder the pace.
For all its flaws, the movie somehow manages to build into a decent mystery thriller in the second hour.
