Thor Love & Thunder's Bad VFX Couldn't Have Been Any Better!

So, the VFX in Thor: Love and Thunder we're pretty bad. But there's something that I don't think many people realize. Now, normally a standard VFX shot, as with most things in movie making, requires quite a bit of forward planning.

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But, for Thor: Love and Thunder, they were still kind of writing the script WHILST it was being filmed!

And so, using this movie as an example, I'm going to show you what happens to the VFX when you don't plan ahead, and how the VFX in Love and Thunder, literally couldn't have been any better.

So let's just take a look at this opening scene that may appear straightforward enough. Apart from extending the backgrounds and other enhancements, we might even be fooled into thinking that the majority was done practically... And it could have been so, if it wasn't for these constant adjustments.

For example, you would think that the interior of this Oasis would have been a practical set, and indeed it was, until they decided they wanted it to look greener and lusher, and so it had to be augmented digitally. The sequence when Gorr cuts himself originally had a whole fight scene with the holder of the Necrosword before it... and the blade on the set was originally angled like this... However, due to the change in the screenplay and in order to achieve this effect later in the scene...the sword had to be set in this position right here.
This meant the vfx teams had to change the angle of the sword in the original plate, even though it made little or no sense that he would crawl toward the corpse or cut himself on a blade that was lying completely flat.
Later on in the scene, we meet the god Rapu, whom you'd think would just be an actor, in a costume, on a physical set, which indeed he was... until... they decided to make some artistic changes.
During principal photography, the actor looked like this and in the final movie, he looked like this
Not only did the VFX Artists have to scrap all of his costume for every single frame, they also had to junk the original sets that the costume touched. So Rapu's whole performance, costume and parts of the set that had been built were reduced to this:
And all had to be reconstructed in post.

The scene continues and Rapu grabs Gorr by the neck and lifts him up

On set, this was done practically with this guy here providing Gorr's swinging motion. However, they weren't happy with the motion they achieved and since Rapu already had to be CGI, they also built Gorr in 3D and just stuck their faces on. However, Rapu and Gorr were the lucky ones! Other characters were cut entirely. Like this guy here... This guy in red... and this character here these characters were all part of the fight with the holder of the Necrosword scene that was removed.
This constant call for story changes and digital enhancements continues throughout the entire opening scene, so in the end, this small 6-and-a-half-minute portion of the movie, actually required 150 VFX shots!
No wonder then that in total, Love and Thunder racked up over a whopping 23 hundred VFX Shots!
Much like the opening scene, The Recap of Thor's life montage also required digital backgrounds, enhancements, and augmentations.
All the typical visual effects that they usually do because it is either too difficult, too time-consuming, or too costly to achieve practically...
But yet again...
Artistic changes and screenplay adjustments made for a lot of extra effects that could have been avoided.
Take this scene, like a lot of scenes in the movie, It was shot using ILM's StageCraft, which is basically a massive wall of LED screens that can show any imagery you want.
The VFX teams created digital environments that could be displayed on these screens and used as a "Live set" background
Unfortunately, Love and Thunder's final backgrounds had to be so detailed that they would be too heavy for the current hardware playback limitations.
So the backgrounds they made for every shot in the movie that used the StageCraft volume had to be substituted for the revised and more detailed versions later in post.

(...)

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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[SzymonAdamus]

They are not super villains. They're a perfectly real corporation that behaves like all, under-regulated, corporations do - it wants to get its hands on all the world's money.... and that's it.
It's not the people or the artistic values that matter, it's the columns in Excel.

[Azrael__]

I don't usually even actively notice this type of bad CGI, but I can feel it. When I'm watching modern MCU movies I just feel like I'm watching weightless, plastic-like cartoons that don't exist in any type of physical space.

[TheJohnWhites]

From the black panther train scene on, I've never blamed the VFX artists, it's always on the studio/director

[faaip]

The problem is marvel trying to aggressively push so many movies and tv shows per year. The fact the planning was so poorly done with so many edits shows they need to slow the heck down and actually plan this stuff out rather than just have planning as an exercise.

If their first movies had this much "fix in post", they'd have gone bankrupt and failed.

[placebo_yue]

They are abusing CGI. Someone should tell the director or whoever took those stupid decisions to suck it up and move forward with the movie

[AndrewCortesi]

The number one red flag is starting to shoot before the script was done. The studio wouldn’t have so many problems with the production had things been planned out from the start.

[conyo]

Man this just shows how bad Disney/Marvel are. Also I blame Taika too. His ego got bigger because of his past success. He needed someone to reign him in.

[shanekixmiller]

It's hilarious that they had built the Oasis set and then went back and mess with it digitally. Does anyone remember legend from 1985? That film has some of the most lush and beautiful Forest I have ever seen and I always assumed that they filmed in an actual Forest. I was blown away when I learned that all of that was soundstages. So, if they could do it so well back in 1985, there's no excuse for this now. Love and thunder was garbage. I was so angry when I left the theater. Especially since I loved Ragnarok so much.

[RhysClark]

Taika's approach to film-making also puts a lot of stress on larger budget productions, he likes the naturalistic spontaneity of improv which can work really really well when done right, the problem is this introduces post production changes that in already expensive movies like this leads to absolutely ballooning production costs if the VFX artists are expected to spend years on it, so marvel doesn't let them, Marvel sets a release date, knowing the movie will look bad and just expects the audience to go see it nyways.

[allyourpie]

There are times when this applies:
"Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything now, and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want." - Scotty to La Forge

[shakya.gold.dragon]

Can I just say, thanks for speaking slowly, clearly and with a relaxing tone, for not rushing your talkingbon video, like others shooting similar content have the tendency to do, which gives headaches just by trying to understand what they say

[GreenMagic]

Fun Fact: In that thor flick scene, Chris Hemsworth was not actually nude. He was wearing pink shorts which they CGI-ed later.

[Yuvsore]

03:54 Great analysis. But I am still wondering how the green man was able to finish that banana.
02:31

[umbertold]

My, oh my. I love your explanations of behind scene moves and invisible workers.

[rejectionperfection]

I was a vfx artist on a Disney+ show that came out last month, and the studio was CONSTANTLY making these types of nit-picky little changes to the production in post. It always took a ton of time away from the big vfx sequences because they never moved deadlines to allow for these changes, making everything in the show look much worse in the end. To add insult to injury, none of the vfx artists were featured in the credits except for the supervisor and project lead.

[Zlittlepenguin]

Ngl this actually did kind of open my eyes a little bit. It must be infinitely frustrating to have to go through reshoots and effectively just have to do entire scenes digitally and try to make it look good. I dunno man, Disney just doesn’t have any idea what it’s doing anymore… they really need like a year off from releasing anything lol

[alcrian]

The problem was Taika Waititi. We all had a glimpse back in Thor Ragnarok but people ignored it. We have two Thor's portrayed by the same actor: the one before and after Taika. Thor is now a silly, dumb character with a few seconds of sobriety. He even stated that he doesn't know Thor as a character and he doesn't care. It's a shame.

[handcoding]

I really appreciate this analysis, and I’d love to see more videos like this!

[scoobydoo]

People often wonder, is screenwriting important? And this is exactly why it is. During the screen writing process you not only develop the story you plan out dialogue, the locations, the action scenes and how actors move in them.
The script acts as the plan or blueprint with a unfinished or rushed one you get mid production changes that can be hard to work around.

[andybrice]

I've been noticing this for years in Marvel VFX breakdowns. They make props, sets, and costumes which are not quite up-to-standard for a big budget film. And then just end up rotoscoping out everything and replacing it with CGI. Seems like a massive waste of resources. They should either make a decision beforehand, or just shoot the whole thing on green-screen.