Earth’s Mightiest Heroes descended on West London’s Colossal-est Retail Emporium with Avengers: Age Of Ultron taking its European bow in Shepherd’s Bush last night. Stark, Cap, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Thor were all there to walk the red carpet and talk all things MCU, before nipping into M&S to stock up on hummus and freshly-baked tesseracts. We think.
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner were all in attendance, with newbies Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and everyone's favourite A.I. The Vision – Paul Bettany – also meeting their loyal fans and chatting about the film.
And as Empire’s review reveals, it’s another doozy - a fitting valediction from Joss Whedon, the man who’s done more than anyone to bring all the interweaving MCU plot strands together into a satisfying whole, before they explode out again into Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok.
Set-up wise, the movie sees the first fault lines opening between the Avengers as Stark’s pursuit of an automated version of S.H.I.E.L.D. leads to his unwitting creation of Ultron (James Spader), a kind of Skynet on chrome legs, and all shades of carnage across four continents. Complicating the picture is Scarlett Witch whose mind-warping form of telekinesis plants seeds of doubt in the heads of Stark’s fellow Avengers. The upshot, as you can see when the Avengers: Age Of Ultron arrives on April 24, is kinda spectacular.