Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania VFX Workers Claim CGI Suffered Because Marvel Prioritized Black Panther 2: Report

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – released in mid-February worldwide – now ranks as one of two Marvel Cinematic Universe films to receive a “rotten” rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Only 48% of critics gave it a positive rating, the common thread being the below-average CGI backgrounds, which felt too cheap for a film that promised beautiful visual landscapes in the form of the urban megalopolis of Quantum Realm. . Following these comments, three unidentified VFX artists who worked on Ant-Man 3 have come forward and blamed Marvel Studios for diverting key resources and crew to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – resulting in time constraints.

Speaking to Vulture, the artists, who used pseudonyms, admitted to taking shortcuts for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which was in post-production around the same time as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It makes sense that multiple Marvel movies would be ready around the same time, given that arcs/phases are mapped out in advance, with movies or shows rolling out on time. However, there seem to have been some errors in terms of planning, as one of the technicians confirmed that some scenes were “cut or otherwise altered” in order to conceal unfinished visual effects and meet a tight deadline. The studio heavily prioritized Black Panther 2, which led to the Ant-Man 3 team being severely understaffed. It’s understandable, given Chadwick Boseman’s legacy and how well the first film of 2018 performed critically and commercially.

“It was like a second wave of what happened with James Cameron on Titanic, where songwriters were basically napping under their desks because there wasn’t enough time between shifts to go home and then back,” one artist revealed in the report. They also noted that there was no question of pushing back the shortcuts as they did not want to take any action that would “compromise” their livelihood. This wouldn’t be the first time Marvel has faced backlash for the mistreatment of its visual effects team. “A lot of us are sitting here thinking the money is there. Why isn’t it going down? Marvel spending a little more money to pay more VFX people wouldn’t make a big difference to the executives all the way top,” he continued. “Honestly, I equate it to human greed.” That said, the tech is happy with his work on Ant-Man 3 – which is billed as the starting point for the MCU’s Phase Five lineup.

Another VFX artist felt returning director Peyton Reed wasn’t 100% clear on what he wanted to do with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s backgrounds. “We had a tough environment that we stuck a few main characters into. At that time, we weren’t told where the characters should be in that environment. We just went with what felt right,” they said. There were times when artists were asked to recreate an actor’s movement, which ideally should have been covered during filming. Something as simple as a two-second shot had to be digitally recreated about 20 times – essentially, by overwriting other artists’ work.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has collected $284.7 million (roughly Rs. 2,356 crore) at the worldwide box office, serving as the strongest opener for the makeover superhero trilogy. In it, the Ant family is inadvertently transported to the Quantum Realm, a megalopolis ruled by the villainous Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who offers Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) lost time in exchange for the accomplishment of a sinister task. . The film also stars Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now in theaters around the world. In India, the third Ant-Man movie is available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.