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BY FRANK LOVECESpecial to Newsday

The words gods andmonsters show up inproximity more thanonce in Avengers: Ageof Ultron, the Marvel

Comics superhero movieopening today, echoing ascientists famous toast in Brideof Frankenstein: To a newworld of gods and monsters!

Coincidence? No. Writer-director Joss Whedon knows hisgenre antecedents, and JamesWhales 1935 classic is, like Ageof Ultron, about artificialintelligence and artificial life.

We happen to be living in atime when just about anythingyou can imagine, someone canbring into being, says MarkRuffalo, who plays scientistBruce Banner and his alter ego,the Hulk. That makes us feelvery powerful and probablygodlike, but it also opens up awhole other plane of monsters.

Is he talking about the movieor the real world? I think both,now, he says. I was talkingabout real life, but thats alsowhat the movie is talking about,in a more extreme way.

Age of Ultron, the latest in anovelistic succession of Marvelmovies, follows Tony Stark (akaIron Man), Steve Rogers(Captain America), the Norsegod Thor, superspy NatashaRomanoff, preternatural archerClint Barton and the Hulk asthey retrieve the powerfulscepter wielded by Thorsbrother, Loki, in The Avengers(2012). Thor will deliver it to hisinterdimensional realm ofAsgard for safekeeping. But first,

Stark suggests studying it for afew days.

In Frankensteinian fashion,this leads to the creation ofUltron an artificialintelligence who thinks peacein our time means engineer-ing a global-extinction event togive new, hopefully improvedlife a chance to evolve. Andwhere A.I. is concerned, bothin film and in real life, Theresthis uncharted territory weremoving into, Ruffalo says.And maybe we see technolo-gy as the answer to everything,but at the same time it couldbe the end of everything.

Not that making the movie wasall existential doom and gloom.The day they shot the scene inwhich were all sitting thereplaying with [Thors] hammer,trying to pull the hammer up offthe table that was just one ofthose magical days where wewere all together and really justkind of hanging out, Ruffalosays. We were improvising a lot

and it was just delightful.Plus, later in that scene,

Ruffalos Banner finds himselflying atop Scarlett JohanssonsRomanoff. Honestly, Ruffalosays with a laugh, that wasfunny because she waspregnant and we had to figureout how to do that scene with-out hurting the dear, dear, dearnew baby inside of her.

As any fan will attest,Banners closest relationship iswith fellow scientist Stark,played by Robert Downey Jr.I think thats informed a lotby [longtime friend] Downeyand our relationship and whohe is in my life. Ruffalo says.Theres an ease there becauseof where weve come from andwhere we find ourselves today.

Plus, he adds, I just thinkits fun to see those dudes doscience seeing those brosbro down over science.

THE MOVIE Batman v Superman: Dawn ofJustice

THE DEAL Clash of the superheroes

IN THEATERS March 25 next year

TUESDAY Selma, withDavid Oyelowo as theRev. Martin Luther King Jr.

TUESDAY Fifty Shadesof Grey

MAY 12 Still Alice

HOT PURSUIT An action-comedystarring Reese Witherspoon, right,as an uptight cop assigned to guard adrug dealers widow (Sofia Vergara).

5 FLIGHTS UP Diane Keaton and Morgan Freemanare a longtime married couple living in fast-gentrifyingBrooklyn who decide to sell their apartment.

WHAT THEYRE SAYING

comingattractionsdvdalertnextweek

In his two-star review ofThe Avengers: Age ofUltron, which ran inWednesdays Newsday,Rafer Guzmn wrote thatits Thin on story, crowd-ed with characters andpadded with extraneousaction. In other words,a sure hit!

Read the full review atNewsday.com/movies

Heres what othercritics had to say:

] Entertaining as much ofAvengers 2 is, especiallywhen its just hanging outwith the gang in betweenscuffles, Joss Whedonspicture meets expecta-tions without exceedingthem. Michael Phillips,

Chicago Tribune

] Lovable characters, just theright amount of humor andspectacular action makeUltron a worthy bridge towhatever happens next in theAvengers universe.

Tony Hicks,San Jose Mercury News

] First, you try to understandwhat the hell is going on. Thenyou slowly realize that you willnever understand what is goingon. And, last, you wind up withthe distinct impression that,if there was anything to under-stand, it wasnt worth the sweat. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

] I walked out of the theaterfeeling like the survivor of anall-you-can-eat buffet.

Chris Nashawaty,Entertainment Weekly

Mark Ruffalo, left, as the Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, ScarlettJohansson as Black Widow, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye reunite in Avengers: Age of Ultron. ] Video: newsday.com/movies

REVIEWS B10

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