Arguably the most memorable film in the MCU boasts some outstanding CGI and VFX and it’s making fans question the problems the studio seems to have today.
The Avengers is often remembered as the moment in Marvel history that fans knew the MCU was here to stay. It did something no other comic book adaptation had done before in successfully putting multiple heroes together in one blockbuster. There was action, a great story, and even better characters. It set the standard for future comic book movies and ingrained the phrase “cinematic universe” into mainstream media for years to come. Even now, other studios are trying to replicate the film’s success.
But the story, characters and action weren’t the only things The Avengers proudly flaunted. The visual effects for the movie were also top-notch. But it begs the question; if the VFX were so good all the way back in 2012, why has Marvel fallen so woefully behind now? The effects arguably look even better then than they do nowadays and fans are wondering why the studio seems to be going backwards. One Twitter user shared a clip from the film showcasing the impressive effects and it definitely puts a lot of recent entries in the franchise to shame.
So why has Marvel fallen so far from grace? Could it be something to do with the now abandoned approach of quantity over quality? We’re all going to see the next movie in the MCU regardless so why not cut corners to allow for more projects each year? The heads at Disney have promised fans that the studio intends to focus on quality again after a slew of poorly received movies.
The studio was exposed for overworking its VFX artists so that answers the question as to why Marvel movies don’t look so great nowadays. But even so, one of the studio’s most recent films, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, can’t hold a candle to some of the effects featured in the first Avengers film, even with ten years on it.
The replies to the tweet were outwardly hostile towards Marvel as fans vented their frustrations with the studio and its recent approach to quality control.
“not too much of a mystery – marvel clearly spend a lot less time and money on vfx and especially with black panther and shang chi, clearly shoot entire sequences on full blue screen with no idea of what the actual setting is”
mat @matthew_2049
Whilst it seems like Marvel may have learned from past mistakes it still needs to treat its VFX artists more fairly. The studio seems to struggle with this idea the most as reports suggest that VFX artists have been overworked as far back as 2012. With technology being ten years more advanced, we should be getting some amazing looking comic book movies, and yet Marvel’s nonchalant attitude to one of the most important aspects of its films has resulted in poorer quality content in recent years. Hopefully with the change in approach comes a return to the glory days.