Everything about the Avengers movies is big. There is a massive cast of superheroes, an expansive universe, and they aren’t exactly short on run time. In fact, the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron clocks in at 142 minutes.
Director Joss Whedon talked to Buzzfeed about two of the latest additions to Marvel’s flagship franchise, super-powered siblings Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and revealed just how much there is to his latest opus. While 142 minutes sounds like a rather lengthy motion picture, it should be noted that it is a full minute shorter than the first film. If Age of Ultron is anything like its predecessor, pace shouldn’t be a problem, and it’s doubtful this will feel nearly as long as it is. Still, you may want to skip the jumbo soda for this one.
Actually, 142 minutes isn’t even as long as we thought it might be. There were reports making the rounds that it clocked in at more than three hours, which, even as good as this looks, might have been a wee bit excessive. Hell, when you hold Age of Ultron up against other notable superhero movies, it isn’t even close to the longest one. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is 152-minutes long, while The Dark Knight Rises is a whopping 165 (by comparison, Batman Begins, the first in the trilogy, is only 140 minutes).
When he tries to "create a suit of armor around the world," Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) inadvertently develops the greatest threat humanity has ever know -- the evil, artificially intelligent Ultron (voiced to creepy perfection by James Spader). Since no one else is equipped to handle such a menace, it’s up to the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to step up and save the day. That is, if they can. What we’ve seen thus far in the build up also illustrates the growing rift between some of the team members, specifically Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man, and that is going to continue to develop as the Marvel Cinematic Universe moves forward into Captain America: Civil War.
We also received recent evidence that HYDRA is up to no good, as we saw photos of their goons decked out in armor scrounged from the Chitauri warriors Loki unleashed on New York City in the first film. We don’t know exactly how that is going to play into the Ultron storyline, though it’s probably not going to be pleasant. But with 142 minutes, there is definitely room to explore a number of different threads.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron also stars Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Paul Bettany, and opens everywhere May 1.
