Joss Whedon has been discussing the state of the superhero movie, and has criticised The Dark Knight in the process.
"Now, I watched The Dark Knight and I thought of that as riffing on the genre," he said. "That was a superhero movie as The Godfather. And I was like, 'But I just still want to see a superhero movie!' We had just gotten the technology to make it awesome, and I wasn't ready to be post-modern about it yet."
Addressing concerns that audiences are bored with the standard everything-gets-blown-to-hell formula that now dominates the superhero genre, Whedon revealed that he was aware of the problem and wanted to make the focus of his films more about people rather than loud bangs.
"People have made it very clear that they are fed up with movies where entire cities are destroyed, and then we celebrate,' he explained.
"I try to make my superhero movies as if there's either never been one or there's only ever been them. I work with the idea that it's just a natural way for people to be, so that you still make a movie about people."
Interesting stuff, with all of the above being pretty revealing in terms of where Whedon's taking his Avengers sequel Age Of Ultron .
Cool characters: definitely in. Massive explosions / post-modern deconstructions: probably out.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is out in UK cinemas on 24 April 2015.
