Extra, Extra!: Age of Ultron Clocks in at 142 Minutes

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

With only about a month to go before Age of Ultron hits theaters, speculation abounded on what the Avengers sequel's final run time would be.  Most reports claimed that it would hit the 160 minute mark, while others put its eventual length at closer to three hours.  We now have official word that the movie will be a relatively scant 142 minutes long.

While people generally presumed that it would be longer - in some cases much longer - than its nearly two and a half hour predecessor, it actually managed to shave a minute off of The Avengers 143 minute run time.  We can expect the movie to be roughly as long and roughly as face-paced as the one it's following up, which is fine by me.

To be completely honest, I don't know why people were expecting it to be so long.  Whedon is an immensely talented director who knows how to not overstay his welcome.  Even with such an expansive cast and a considerable more plot than The Avengers, there's only so much time that you can devote to a CGI smash fest, even one as perfectly crafted as Age of Ultron is shaping up to be.

All the same elements that made the first movie so great are already there in the sequel.  There's the core Avengers team, plus some mistrusted extras (and I'm not just talking about the twins).  The enemy is a charismatic megalomaniac with an army of faceless drones to do most of the heavy lifting.  There's tense in-fighting (Cap vs Stark sets up Civil War while Hulk vs Stark potentially sets up Planet Hulk). spectacular action sequences and Black Widow's omnipresent playful banter.  Age of Ultron is sporting the full package.

So what do you hope to see in Age of Ultron that the trailers didn't already give away?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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