How many superheroes does it take to make a movie? At this point, Marvel Studio's cinematic empire is getting so overpopulated that you'd need a spreadsheet to keep track of who everyone is. There are over a dozen comic-book characters vying for attention in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," — some who have their own standalone films and TV series to promote — and the movie barely knows what to do with them all.

It's too bad that Robert Altman is no longer around to attempt to marshal this outsized ensemble. He might have been able to craft a more satisfying film than writer and director Joss Whedon has managed here — though perhaps even he would have struggled with this Marvel-mandated mission.

It's a lot harder to impose a creative mark now than it was for Whedon in his first "Avengers" film in 2012, when he had more wiggle room. Though it clocks in at 141 minutes, "Age of Ultron" has to spend so much time introducing new characters, joining dots and laying the groundwork for future films that it barely gets a chance to succeed on its own terms.