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 but does meet minimum expectations and will most likely surpass its predecessor in the numbers department.

Apart from the increased superhero count, Age of Ultron is crammed with just about everything that Whedon and his filmmaking collaborators could think of. Juggling an all-star ensemble requires a certain skill set and as far as possible, Whedon spreads screen time equally among the lead members of the A Team.