Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015) * *

Directed by:  Joss Whedon

Starring:  Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johannson, James Spader (voice), Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jeremy Renner

Avengers:  Age Of Ultron is one crowded movie.   There are simply too many characters, too much plot, and too much action.     People say some movies are boring because "nothing happens."    Avengers: Age of Ultron is a movie where everything happens and is still rather boring.    Wall-to-wall noise, violence, and CGI make this film all sound and fury, signifying nothing as Shakespeare put it.

Describing all of the intricacies of the plot is a fool's errand, so I'll explain the basics.    Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Downey) and Dr. Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Ruffalo) create an artificial intelligence robot named Ultron (voiced by James Spader) who quickly overcomes his programming boundaries, turns evil, and hatches a plot to take over the world with the help of Scarlett Witch (Olsen) and Quicksilver (Taylor-Johnson), who have their own respective powers of telekinesis and speed which would make The Flash envious   What exactly would happen once the world is taken over?   Your guess is as good as mine.    I questioned why someone would want to take over a whole planet or universe.    After that, what evil is left to accomplish?    Guys like Ultron will get bored real quick, like General Zod did in Superman II.

As Ultron hatches his plot, the Avengers hole up in a farmhouse owned by Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Renner) which is off the grid I suppose and the group can lick their wounds, hash out arguments and resentments, and reunite for one last push.    The original Avengers (2012) followed the same story arc.    Can't we all just get along?    We know ultimately that the good guys will come together and overcome their temporary squabbles, so why even bother?

More characters are presented in a film already saturated with them.    One is The Vision (Bettany), who we find is what the Ultron project was supposed to be.    Thor discovers him in his dreams, although how this comes to fruition is a mystery.    Alliances are shifted on a dime.    Whatever plans Ultron had become muddled, as does the Avengers' plot to foil them.    I suppose we are expected to go with the flow, but that becomes a Herculean task also.  

Avengers: Age of Ultron soon becomes a mind-numbing slog.    The original Avengers was silly, yes, but it was fun on its intended level.     Age of Ultron is not nearly as fun.    It is ponderous.    The superheroes are quickly losing their appeal.     They are becoming bores.     The credit cookie in this film hints at a future film uniting The Avengers with Guardians of the Galaxy.    My brain may explode trying to juggle all of those.