Over the past few years, Marvel has seen some backlash for the visual effects in their films and television shows. We saw this as early as 2018’s Black Panther, in which many pointed at the third act’s VFX as a big hindrance, and the criticism has plagued Phase Four as Marvel Studios expands its output across film and television.
These comments were mostly from fans and critics: now it seems like the industry professionals who bring these shots to life are opening up about their experiences. Coming from the subreddit r/VFX, quite a few VFX artists spoke out against Marvel saying that the studio has the “worst VFX management out there”. One user went as far as to say working on Marvel projects led to a “black hole of sleep deprivation and eating bad”.
These complaints come from a thread titled “I am quite frankly sick and tired of working on Marvel shows.” In one of the messages, Reddit user Independent-Ad419 expressed their frustrations with Marvel and Disney. “Marvel has probably the worst methodology of production and VFX management out there”, they write. “They can never fix the look for the show before more than half the allocated time for the show is over. The artists working on Marvel shows are definitely not paid equivalent to the amount of work they put in.”
From there, the replies seem to mirror this sentiment. “On Thor, they ask for a complete mini-sequence 2 or 3 weeks before deadline”, says samvfx2015. User Mickeym00m00 adds, “I request to not work on [Marvel] movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, they’re becoming our biggest client. They expect a smorgasbord of options so they can change their mind three more times.”
Mickeym00m00 went on to explain a fairly particularly shocking storying regarding their time working with the massive superhero brand: “Marvel has seen grown men punch walls and throw monitors from stress. I broke down a couple of times and have seen the strain it can put on marriages. But hey the $$ was fantastic. Fuck Marvel as a client, the credit name is not fucking worth it.”
It’s been apparent for a few years now that the visual effects on their massive blockbuster shows and movies aren’t perfect, and now we are seeing confirmation that it’s not just “Marvel haters.” These are industry professionals who are standing up for themselves against what they feel are unfit working conditions.
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Let’s see if Marvel or Disney will make any comments regarding this, or if they’ll continue to churn out the work they’ve been putting out. If Thor: Love and Thunder’s opening weekend box-office is anything to go by, it seems like fans will watch whatever they put out.
Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder” finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey, unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.
Directed by Thor: Ragnarok‘s Taika Waititi, who also reprises his CGI role as Korg, Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor), alongside the returning Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Jaimie Alexander (Lady Sif), Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Dave Bautista (Drax) and Sean Gunn (Kraglin), with Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari) as Gorr the God Butcher and Russell Crowe (Man of Steel) as Zeus.
Thor: Love and Thunder is in cinemas now.
