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When did the MCU decline so much visual wise?

Uzumaki Goku

Uzumaki Goku

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Oct 27, 2017
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There's a noticeable difference in how the Phase 1 movies are shot compared to how they're done today.

I saw people on Twitter saying that The Winter Soldier was the beginning of the end in terms of visual quality. Disney saw the immense positive reception and demanded that the rest of the movies look like that from now on.

Personally, I think that as the MCU has expanded to more than 2 projects a year, probably far easier to just have them shoot everything in front of a blue screen and CGI the background later. I think I made a thread about visually dull No Way Home is due to all the blue screening.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

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Oct 25, 2017
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(when they started assembly line producing these and everything else in the industry also ramped up often unnecessary CG nonsense to a ridiculous degree so resources are tapped, schedules are rough and fixed)
 

sanityislost

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Oct 21, 2021
397
Always thought they where pretty good.

Nothing I have seen has stood out to me as bad, I just enjoy the ride. However I'm not in anyway to be an expert on CGI.
 
Kinsei

Kinsei

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Oct 25, 2017
20,668
$$$$

Why spend more when the movies are going to be wildly successful and most of the audience doesn't care anyway? Wring as much profit out of the stone before fatigue sets in.
 
subpar spatula

subpar spatula

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Oct 26, 2017
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When they cranked the conveyer belt to a 9/10. All the time and energy is to packaging these things asap so corners sometimes never get the attention they deserve
 
Solo

Solo

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Oct 25, 2017
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When they decided to focus in quantity? When you're pushing out 3-4 movies and 3-4 shows a year, things are going to look like shit, which they absolutely do.
 
PanSexual_Peacock

PanSexual_Peacock

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Oct 27, 2017
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They saw how lazy they can be while still raking in the bucks because the general audience doesn't care much about these things.
 
Tomasoares

Tomasoares

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Oct 28, 2017
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The new Doctor Strange film looked really good and it had some nice creative things regarding visuals compared with usual MCU stuff
 
Dust

Dust

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I rememeber not believing what I was seeing in theatre when I was watching Black Panther, that was the first time I think. The suit fight at the end was laughable.
 
Saladin

Saladin

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Honestly haven't noticed a downgrade in visuals. All of the movies looked visually great
 
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Uzumaki Goku

Uzumaki Goku

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Oct 27, 2017
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Kinsei said:
$$$$

Why spend more when the movies are going to be wildly successful and most of the audience doesn't care anyway? Wring as much profit out of the stone before fatigue sets in.
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Pretty much.

As long as the movies are raking in the cash, I don't see this changing anytime soon.
 
DazzlerIE

DazzlerIE

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Oct 25, 2017
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The Disney Plus shows (both SW and MCU) feel like fast food. The visuals are cheap, the storylines are lightweight. They just come and go for the most part with little lasting legacy. I've watched them all, but the only ones that have felt actually good were Loki and Mandalorian. Even Mando has that trademark virtual backdrop going on
 
ErichWK

ErichWK

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Oct 25, 2017
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I do really like how the new Doctor Strange was shot and looked. I didn't like how Black Widow was shot..it was so...boring and lifeless. Shang Chi was visually cool..until the end i thought it got kinda dumb looking
 

Deleted member 35509

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Strange 2 looked great, the shows are just so mediocre when it comes to cinematography. They look so cheap and sometimes lazy.
 

ErrorJustin

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Oct 28, 2017
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There are bad shots and examples of bad compositing here and there earlier in the MCU but Black Panther in 2018 is the first time I can recall a long, extended stretch of the movie prominently featuring VERY bad, mid-2000s-level CG. It's pretty shocking.

I consider it a turning point for the MCU because that movie made a billion dollars. You have to imagine they began wondering if they could just always get away with shoddy work like that.
 
Dyno

Dyno

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Oct 25, 2017
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Tbh I often find they look fine but something about the latest spiderman looked like shit. I'm tempted to say they speed ran compositing in some scenes, and went totally OTT on DoF in others. But the latter is far more than a marvel thing. I'm finding more and more these days that DoF is getting used to a degree that it looks jarring.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

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Oct 27, 2017
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Age of Ultron was the first time I remember thinking "man, what an ugly, dull mess" in regards to the visual presentation as a whole. I mean, I thought the same thing about Age of Ultron in general, but that was really the first time the MCU leaned hard into that brown and gray aesthetic.
 
Griffith

Griffith

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Oct 27, 2017
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One of the things that I think have been slowly slipping away is the use of practical effects versus CGi. While earlier movies feel like they rely on more practical effects or at least better-executed CGi, later movies series feel a bit worse in that regard. The difference in how convincing the early scenes on Obi-Wan, to mention one example, compared to the futuristic city a few episodes later is a bit jarring.

But if you want an MCU example, I'd point towards the Spider Man movies. The latest one had what I think was, or at least felt like, the least amount of practical effects and sceneries and I felt that that was pretty clear. There's an uncanny valley characteristic to them.
 
zeitgeist

zeitgeist

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Oct 27, 2017
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I've noticed it way more on the Disney+ shows.

I feel like the huge screen/soundstage thing that Mandalorian was doing has now been abused and we are all wise to the trick so it's hard not to notice how fake it all is.
 
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Uzumaki Goku

Uzumaki Goku

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Oct 27, 2017
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ErichWK said:
I do really like how the new Doctor Strange was shot and looked. I didn't like how Black Widow was shot..it was so...boring and lifeless. Shang Chi was visually cool..until the end i thought it got kinda dumb looking
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Some of that is Sam Raimi working his charm.

The script problems were not his fault though.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

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Oct 28, 2017
11,146
Morbius made them all look bad.

Seriously though I agree in regards to the shows but I think Strange had incredible visuals.
 
Akileese

Akileese

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Oct 25, 2017
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Defector had an anonymous write in on it based on an article they wrote that seemed to explain what's going on pretty well. The TLDR is there's too much content and of course, it's money related as well.

defector.com

An Anonymous TV Writer Offers An Inside Look At Why Special Effects Seem So Bad Right Now | Defector

So when you're actually looking at a visual shot and saying, "That hippo looks ridiculous," or "That tiger doesn't look real," or "That is laughably bad," I don't think any creative executive watching that would be like, "Eh, that's okay." They might say, "We hate this. Is there anything we can...
defector.com defector.com
 
Carbon

Carbon

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Oct 27, 2017
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Bentendo24 said:
After watching stranger things 4, which has like 9 hour+ long episodes, there's really no excuse anymore. That show is so many leagues ahead of anything Disney+ has churned out
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It has the budget of a movie though.

decider.com

‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Reportedly Costs $30 Million Per Episode

Looks like the real Mind Flayer is the price tag to create this Netflix hit.
decider.com decider.com

It also has to hit big, because it's one of Netflix's most important properties.
 
Watership

Watership

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Oct 27, 2017
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Uzumaki Goku said:
There's a noticeable difference in how the Phase 1 movies are shot compared to how they're done today.

I saw people on Twitter saying that The Winter Soldier was the beginning of the end in terms of visual quality. Disney saw the immense positive reception and demanded that the rest of the movies look like that from now on.

Personally, I think that as the MCU has expanded to more than 2 projects a year, probably far easier to just have them shoot everything in front of a blue screen and CGI the background later. I think I made a thread about visually dull No Way Home is due to all the blue screening.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This can be a pretty subjective thing, but I think in general the phase 3-4 have been far more diverse and interesting looking then the previous phases. And there is no more green screen than any other blockbuster movie really, and it only really changes with scale. I guess it just depends on who you listen to or who is complaining the most on the internet. The early MCU was full of people screaming about how bland it was, and how the colour grading was terrible, and how the effects were subpar. It was a small but loud group online that seemed to spark the conversation and the community as a whole jumping on the bandwagon.

This reminds me of how people where so excited when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was coming out, and Lucasfilm was saying over and over again "Practical effects are back!" and the community was frothing at the mouth. Years later, it comes out that there were far less practical effects in the Sequels, compared to the Prequels, which was actually mostly practical effects, it was just that the GCI was from..well, the early 2000s.
 
Raigor

Raigor

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May 14, 2020
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quantity over quality.

The Disney+ shows are laughable, the She-Hulk trailer CGI is a fucking joke.
 
Protome

Protome

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Oct 27, 2017
15,820
It's real hit or miss. Black Panther's CG looks terrible, Black Widow all around looked terrible (but that one kinda felt shoved out the door in general) and No Way Home mostly looks okay but everything that they've CG'd in the kind of "golden hour" sunset background for looks absolutely abysmal.

I thought Doctor Strange mostly looked nice though.
 
Gravidee

Gravidee

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Oct 28, 2017
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The beginning of Age of Ultron looked pretty bad. The Hydra goons getting thrown around looked like cartoon ragdolls because the way they were animated was like something from an early 2000s Harry Potter film.
 
pechorin

pechorin

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Apr 13, 2020
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the opening of Doctor Strange 2 you could almost see the green screen the background looked so fake, it slightly got better later on though.
 
Squid Bunny

Squid Bunny

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Jun 11, 2018
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I don't really care for bad CGI tbh, the larger issue is that the films look bland regardless. The lack of color, muddy brown/grey tones in big scenes are what bring it really down.
 
Praetorpwj

Praetorpwj

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Nov 21, 2017
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When your target audience believes you're the only part of the entertainment industry that matters.
 
Dabanton

Dabanton

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Oct 27, 2017
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Wrexis said:
Black Panther was one of the first movies where I was like....really? This is the best you can do?

A breakdown of BP's issues are actually discussed here.

thedirect.com

Black Panther VFX Artist Reveals What Went Wrong With Movie's Bad CGI

Black Panther VFX artist Todd Sheridan Perry revealed what went wrong on the VFX side of things during the final battle of 2018 MCU flick.
thedirect.com thedirect.com
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lol this is hilarious. I worked at one of the studios mentioned and basically, there was not enough people put on the team at first. A lot of people were on Endgame which got the 5* treatment at the multiple VFX studios working on it. IIRC a lot of Black Panther got farmed out to India initially.

I remember a lot of people at the time within the departments saying that Disney was treating Black Panther as not a massive priority but to get things done as well as they could, and then they saw that this movie was picking up speed and as studios love to do they asked for more complex work with less time to go.

To this day I don't think Kevin Fiege and Disney had as much faith in that movie as revisionist history would have us believe and were kinda caught off guard by how much people connected with it.

They were probably thinking an Antman level hit. Not the billion-dollar monster it turned out to be.
 
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