‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is packed with more than just great action

Sure, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is too much of a good thing. Way too much. But what that also means is there are a lot of good things to be had in this blockbuster sequel to the monster hit that was the first Avengers film.

With a hero’s roll call that includes Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye, it’s no wonder the movie is overstuffed. That rundown doesn’t even include a couple of new recruits to the Avengers’ fold by movie’s end: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

With individual storylines granted to each of our well-cast heroes, and countless scenes in which they all have to work together, it’s a tribute to Joss Whedon’s direction and screenplay that the movie doesn’t collapse under its own storytelling weight. For a movie as complicated, if not convoluted, as “Age of Ultron” gets, it’s amazing how easy it is to follow.

Here it is in a nutshell:

The brilliant industrialist Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, convinces the even more brilliant Bruce Banner, aka Hulk, to help him work on a super-secret project &#8212 an artificially intelligent robot that’s so smart and so capable that it can save and protect the world from all the evildoers all by itself and, in effect, put the Avengers out of business. This robot, which goes by the name Ultron, is meant to bring peace to our planet once and for all.

As things inevitably do in this kind of story, Ultron goes a little haywire.

“I was designed to save the world,” Ultron says in the film. “People who have looked to the sky and see hope … I’ll take that from them first. There is only one path to peace … their extinction.”

Tony Stark learns a valuable lesson the hard way. You shouldn’t exclude your colleagues when you’re planning to save the world.

It’s only when the Avengers learn to work together that mankind stands a chance to save itself against the baddies of the world, which now, unfortunately, include the super-smart and powerful Ultron.

Ultron is nothing special to look at. He’s another one of these very mobile, metallic-laden robots that seem to be a dime a dozen in comic book movies these days.

But what sets Ultron apart from all its dreary, metallic predecessors is its voice, delivered with condescending perfection by James Spader, and the dripping sarcasm that voice conveys. I suppose it should come as no surprise that a creation of the wisecracking Tony Stark would himself be a smart aleck, but it’s a pleasant surprise to see Ultron matching not only smarts and power, but wits as well with the Avengers.

Of course, none of this would matter (the understandable plot, the individual heroes’ backstories, the witty banter, etc.), if the special effects extravaganza wasn’t suitably 3-D spectacular. And of course, it is. So much stunning action breaks out over the course of this almost 2 ½ hour movie that the audience rarely gets a chance to catch its breath, let alone get bored. The only danger might be sensory overload, but it’s paced nicely enough that it stops just short of that.

The movie is not without problems. It tries out a hesitant romance between Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk that is more embarrassing than touching. The underdeveloped Hawkeye is given an entirely unnecessary home life that no one had previously known about. And the camaraderie among the Avengers seems more than a little forced, especially in a drawn-out scene in which each Avenger tries unsuccessfully to pick up Thor’s hammer.

But ultimately, these complaints will, for the most part, be left in the dust by this fast-moving, high octane drama that has thrills and chills and a great sense of humor about itself.