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

One of the most curious things I see repeated across the internet, from student journalism right up to major websites, is the claim that critics hate Marvel movies. They cite poor reviews and use this as a wider extrapolation for the fan-critic divide, but that's not really the truth. At all.

Not a single film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a rotten rating on RottenTomatoes, with the lowest rated films The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World on 67%. Everything else is Certified Fresh, many with a critical approval higher than audiences. Things are less overwhelmingly positive over at the more harshly aggregated Metacritic, but the general message is about same; critics like Marvel movies. In fact, they rate them higher than most other blockbusters.

It may seem like I'm stating the obvious here, but these facts seem to be ignored in a brash generalisation of critical opinion that heavily influences the public consensus. I can see how the misunderstanding can happen - in less than a decade Marvel has secured such a prominent position in blockbuster cinema that they're viewed as more than a couple of movies a year, with non-Marvel movies read as Marvel - but it also speaks of how there's almost an expectation for this divide when there's not really evidence.

Of course, there are the claims of Disney paying off critics, which I find frankly ridiculous; who would work exceedingly hard to get to a position where their voice actually matters, only to give it up for a quick pay-off? If film writers wanted to get rich, they wouldn't be film writers.