The Avengers hasn't come in for much negative press since its release back in May. Indeed, having gone over pretty well with critics across the board, and marched its way to becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time, it's been a pretty smooth ride for Joss Whedon's superhero smash.
However, there will always be dissenters, Earlier in the year, Sam Jackson lost his rag with a New York Times reviewer who he felt was overly critical of the film, taking to Twitter to suggest the critic find himself a new job.
Whedon himself takes a more philosophical view of the naysayers, although he does feel that some of the less favourable reviews were written as an attack on the genre as a whole, rather than of his specific entry to it.
"I went into a bubble when the film came out," says Whedon, "but I do know that Sam Jackson got pretty huffy. I don't think a flame war is going to help anybody. People are allowed to not like the film."
"But I do get annoyed when somebody really hasn't done their homework. A lot of reporting in the negative reviews... was more like they were reviewing the [ superhero ] genre than the movie itself.
With $1.5bn in the bank and counting, we'd suggest those reviews aren't really too much to worry about. Marvel's bean-counters certainly won't be losing any sleep over them…
