Release Date: April 23, 2015 As the climax to a number of Marvel pictures produced in order to render a fully-fledged "Cinematic Universe," The Avengers went on to become the third highest-grossing movie of all-time. No easy feat, but given the inherently delicious premise - Joss Whedon behind the camera for a movie featuring the likes of Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye - it's not exactly surprising. So, of course, given the success of the original (both critically and commercially) and its relentless marketing campaign, there's a lot of hype currently circling the upcoming sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which Marvel fans are no doubt expecting to be the best movie in the MCU canon so far. But to assume such a thing is dangerous for a number of reasons. Firstly, lightning rarely strikes twice; Whedon has a different kind of pressure to deliver under here, and there's a chance that the movie will buckle under the weight of expectations if the picture is anything other than "spectacular." Secondly, because it's a sequel, it's going to be hard to match the giddiness that was initially felt the first time these heroes came together Whedon has also compared the movie to Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, which is a dangerous play in its own right - if the film turns out to be too dark, then it risks losing the sense of fun that made the original so great. Simply put: there's a lot that could go wrong here. And yet the "consistent" nature of the MCU has promised fans a great movie in advance. Beware the hype, folks.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
