10 Problems With The Marvel Cinematic Universe Nobody Seems To Acknowledge

4. The Critics Now Live In A Bubble

I'll quote Roger Ebert's review of Thor: "Here is a film that is scoring on Rotten Tomatoes. For what? The standards for comic book superhero movies have been established by Superman, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man. In that company, Thor is pitiful."

Ebert was one of the few critics who managed to retain the memories of 2008 when it came to the new surge of superhero films, but he was - after all - just one critic. It's surprising how many critics came to love these below average flicks, despite the fact that - before - we had so many masterpieces that were consistently setting new standards for the genre.

It makes sense to theorise that because Sony were in the process of rebooting Spider-Man, Christopher Nolan was busy with Inception, and Fox were recovering from Bryan Singer temporarily leaving X-Men behind, that the lack of competition allowed Disney to flood the market with their films. By the time these other franchises got back on their feet, a new bar had been set - one that required lots of comedy to supplement the action and drama (if any at all).

Then again, sometimes the critics are not in tune with audiences, as Man of Steel clearly proved. However, Disney's Marvel films have had another unintentional consequence...