A noisily entertaining package

THE opening salvo in this season's blockbuster battles comes from Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is stacked with enough superheroes to fill the stage at a Comic-Con convention. The usual brand-names are back, along with an impressive undercard of superhero friends and foes and a heavy-duty, platinum-voiced adversary - plus a supersized helping of effects-driven action to satiate fan appetites.

Writer-director Joss Whedon, whose formidable task was to equal if not top his earlier mega-grossing success with The Avengers (2012), predictably takes a "more-is-more" approach and loads up on everything that a US$250-million budget can buy. The result is a noisily entertaining package that doesn't have the impact of the original bu…