Why does Ant-Man look like that? VFX techs blame Marvel’s “shortcuts”
The brown, sludgy visual effects came down to Marvel having too much on their plate
The breakneck speed with which Marvel Studios operates is a far cry from its beginning. Last year, the company released three feature films, three TV shows, and two TV specials. Unfortunately, none of these came cheap or easy, whether it’s nine episodes of She-Hulk and one episode of The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special.
But the main show, the movies (it’s still the Marvel Cinematic Universe, last we checked), is starting to show cracks in the Studio’s once-believed unstoppable success. No one feels the crunch harder than the visual effects technicians creating the distant worlds that used to elicit wonder. Speaking with Vulture under the condition of anonymity, VFX technicians explain that the problems at Marvel are found throughout the visual effects industry—though, Ant-Man suffered greater under the burden.
The primary issue was simultaneously making Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. “Wakanda Forever was definitely at the top of the list,” one VFX tech said. “It’s understandable given the context — with Chadwick and everything and how well the first film did. But it did diminish the ability to carry Ant-Man all the way through.”
The tech says there were noticeable “shortcuts” taken with Ant-Man “used to cover up incomplete work.” These shortcuts resulted in the feeling that “certain scenes were trimmed” to save money, time, or to “cover up the inability to get it done.” Still, they said technicians are treated as secondary to the almighty dollar. “If it comes down to them not being comfortable with their bank numbers and us working until burnout, we lose out every time. Honestly, I equate it to human greed […] Marvel is doubling down as much as possible on constricting quality. They’re squeezing blood out of stones. And we’re out of blood.”