Nobody can argue that VFX artists are among the most overworked and underpaid professionals in the entire industry, and that becomes especially true in the wake of so many horror stories emanating from the dark and dingy corridors of Marvel Studios.
Stories have run rampant for years that the people involved in creating the comic book blockbuster’s awe-inspiring worlds and explosive set pieces are being dramatically mistreated by the powers-that-be, never mind the fact that all of their hard work often tends to result in nothing more than a savaging when audiences catch thee end product and decide the CGI isn’t up to scratch.
You wouldn’t have expected any of the technical wizards to leap to the cinematic universe’s defense, then, but Stephane Ceretti – a veteran VFX supervisor who boasts Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Eternals, Avengers: Endgame, and many more MCU projects among his filmography – took issue with actress Patricia Arquette claiming that the incoming AI storm will turn cinema into nothing more than “100 million Marvel movies.”
With so many tales of woe regarding Marvel’s alleged handling of its effects departments being public knowledge, it’s nothing if not a surprise to hear someone with so much firsthand knowledge of the process deciding to take a public stand against any besmirching of the good Marvel name.
Whether or not AI really does end up delivering on its terrifying promise of infinite Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania clones is anybody’s guess, but that’s not a future anybody wants to be a part of.