8 Reasons Why Fans And Critics Can’t Agree On Superhero Films

The film that really personifies this debate and pushed it from a minor grumble into a major talking point with each and every subsequent release is Batman V Superman. And while it was always going to court some controversy, the studio really ramped things up.

You know the "for the fans, not the critics" defence? Well Warner Bros. really kick-started that being applied to Dawn Of Justice. It's what what Henry Cavill famously dived straight into without pausing for breath in the still-hilarious Sad Affleck video, but the same basic line was actually trotted out in various interviews by just about every high-profile member of the cast and crew. And, most importantly, this started before the reviews came out; there's an embarrassing interview where Affleck has to mumble his PR lines while Jimmy Fallon mocked the size of Argo.

Tragic though it is, this was picked up by the fans and eventually compounded when Warner Bros. top brass echoed the sentiment. The studio clearly realised they had a bit of a critical stinker on their hands well ahead of time and decided to tackle whatever RottenTomatoes score they got head on by simply discounting it.

This isn't to say Batman V Superman was the first time the line has been used, but it was the first time where a genuine animosity about the difference in approach between fans and critics was fostered by the studio. And there's now no going back - it's reared its head again for X-Men: Apocalypse and Warcraft: The Beginning.