10 Reasons The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Best Days Are Behind It

10. The Universe Takes Itself Less Seriously Now

Okay, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing, given that we're talking about movies based on comic books, and comic books are supposed to be fun, right? But consider that the first few movies in the MCU line-up (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America) managed to blend a sense of the "real world" with a sense of humour to a far better degree than the later installments, like Thor: The Dark World and - yes - Guardians of the Galaxy. On the one hand, it's good to have comic book movies that don't take themselves super seriously: nobody really wants that, do they? We learned such things first hand with a little movie called The Dark Knight Rises, which was arguably so bombastic that it was hard to have any fun with it. But when characters are cracking gags at the rate at which they are in Thor: The Dark World, it's hard to get emotionally involved; the consequences are lowered. Consider the way in which big movie franchises tend to get "funnier" with every new installment, purely because the writers have fewer places to go now that they've established their key players - they heighten the characters, often transforming them into near-on parodies, and increase the gag count to make up for the lack of narrative. That's not to say the MCU shouldn't be funny; just the balance has tipped now, and the drama suffers as a result.