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Avengers: Age of Ultron is Avengers-worthy, as proven by its $200 million opening weekend and its Marvel-ous mix of human-scale comedy-drama amidst earthshaking fantasy. It's also studded with LOLs, and not all them from Downey. He gets plenty, but the comic relief is more broadly spread around this time.

However, it's wearisome trying to keep up with the plot, especially when it takes long detours into the mind-control of half a dozen key characters, each of whom have their own neuroses. In writer-director Joss Whedon's defense, it all seems to hold together, in a "Marvel Cinematic Un…

George Miller reboots Mad Max for a new generation with Fury Road. Tom Hardy ably replaces Mel Gibson, while Charlize Theron shepherds five wives through hell, adding a woman's touch to what remains an absurdly masculine movie. The result is an exhilarating – albeit ridiculous – entertainment experience.

The movie is one long chase scene, an operatic, absurd, heavy-metal chase scene through a forbidding landscape. Basically it's a post-apocalyptic scream-dream. More wearing than exhilarating after a while, it feels somewhat repetitive over the course of 2 full hours. However, it is a…