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I know there are a number of Marvel fans here and was wondering if any of them could explain something to me about the wider 'universe' that the marvel films have been portraying recently. Specifically I'm trying to reconcile the universe as portrayed in the Thor films with the universe as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor shows the universe as nine 'realms' policed by Asgard and where the Dark Elves are a major threat. So how does this fit in with the vast universe shown to us in GOTG where Dark Elves and Aether don't seem to factor in?

Are these nine 'realms' simply nine separate worlds in the same galaxy that share some sort of natural connection? Or nine totally separate universes and the Galaxy in GOTG is simply the wider 'Midgard'? If so what is it that makes Earth the centre of this universe to the Norse?

GotG is set in "our" universe. This is also the realm Midgard in Thor's multiverse.

Midgard seems centered on Earth but actually extends to the farthest reaches of known space. Then there are the eight other realms that the Asguard are in touch with.

Really the 9 realms are just major planets (even if they don't always resemble your typical planet, much as Asgard does not, being more of a massive double-sided floating disc). You see that when Thor is fighting Malekith. Mjolnir is trying to return to Thor, and is heading towards Earth. Thor/Malekith go through a distortion and end up on (I believe) Svartalfheim, and Mjolnir hangs a massive U-turn and starts heading out into space.

Also, about Malekith being a massive, universe ending threat in Thor 2 but not mentioned in Guardians, the reason you don't hear about Malekith and the Aether in Guardians of the Galaxy, nor will you likely hear much about the Orb in Thor Ragnarok, and why the Tesseract wasn't mentioned at all in Thor, and why basically every major event from each film isn't mentioned across the others, is Marvel is letting wach film stand on its own.

They learned their lesson from Iron Man 2 with trying to tie a single film too closely into the overall universe at the expense of that films story.

A good example is in Guardians, where Gunn couldn't make Thanos work how Marvel wanted him to. Feige told him to just get rid of what he didn't like, if it was going to impact the quality of his movie and story. The overall plot takes a backseat to the individual movies plot if it has to.

Yeah, basically what those two said. In the film-verse, the 9 Realms Thor describes in his first films are 9 worlds/planets that have a direct link/connection with Asgard. They can all be accessed via the Bifrost from Asgard, and all align at the Convergence.

However, there are thousands or millions of other worlds that don't share this connection, some of which are in GoTG. These include the likes of Xandar and the Kree Empire, among others.

 Paradigm wrote:
However, there are thousands or millions of other worlds that don't share this connection, some of which are in GoTG. These include the likes of Xandar and the Kree Empire, among others.

It's worth mentioning that Agents of Shield made a direct connection between Asgard and the Kree, when Sif turned up in season 1. Skye questioned her about alien species she'd fought, particularly blue aliens, and one she mentioned was the Kree.

Thanks all. That does makes sense. I understand that the need for a well done plot for each film overrides the need for consistency within the overall MCU so perhaps its just best not to over think these things.