Visual Effects Of Awesome / Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is filled with visual effects that are stunning.

• Iron Man: By far the best visual effects work is during the scene when Tony's entire automated workshop dresses him in his Mark III armor, piece by piece, finishing with placing his helmet and mask.
• The Incredible Hulk (2008): Most anyone you ask will agree that the effects were many, many times better than those of the earlier Hulk film. Both the Hulk and the Abomination had very good muscle definition and skin texture for CGI creations, and the scenes where they are in the rain are downright cool. Yes, even the Hulk's narm scene in the cave. The film also required both creatures to do a lot of interaction with real environments, people and other elements, which was pulled off pretty well.
• Iron Man 2: Tony Stark putting on his "suitcase armor".
• Thor: The cosmic end-credits sequence, featuring the camera zooming through Yggdrasil on the path between Earth and Asgard, is a sight to behold.
• Captain America: The First Avenger:
  • The film was shot with around 90% of it being practical effects. Scenes like the train scene, any of the shield tossing scenes, and the on foot street chase (which uses slowed frame rates to make it appear as if the titular character is running and jumping really fast) are just bone-chillingly awesome as a result. In addition, Joe Johnston shot the film in 2D with 3D in mind so he could ensure careful attention to detail for the 3D conversion. The result is a fantastic practical effects driven film that is awesome watching it, and even looking insanely awesome in 3D, despite being post-converted.
  • The 3D conversion itself was raved about when released in cinemas. Many thought the film was shot in 3D as it looked so good when it was converted. When it was seen in UltraAVX cinemas, one couldn't help but be blown away by the achievement. Further, the scene where the shield swings into the camera before heading into the base near the end is so well done, it'll make you jump out of your seat.
  • While a lot of it falls because of the actor, the visual effects used to show a pre Super-Soldier Serum Steve Rogers is pretty impressive. A combination of the main actor, a much smaller acting body double, and SFX, and it's quite convincing to the point that some fans thought the post Super-Soldier Serum was special effects.
• The Avengers (2012):
  • Everything from from the Helicarrier rising from the ocean, to Tony's new suit, to Hulk's transformations, to the battle scenes. Scenery Porn galore!
  • The climactic battle scene that takes place in New York? Most of it was either entirely CGI or green-screened at an outside location. The scene with Iron Man coming out of the ocean and flying to the Stark Tower? All CGI.
• Iron Man 3:
  • CGS details exactly all the work they did, and on a shorter deadline to boot!
  • Tony's home blown up and falling into the ocean looks amazing. Special kudos to the people that managed to make the Mark 42 armor latch onto Tony Stark as he's climbing and doing rolls during the entire attack look almost flawless.
  • As always, the armor's animation itself looks sleek and impressive. Take that up several notches with an entire legion of Iron Man armors and you've got something that's beyond impressive.
  • Credit also has to be given to the Extremis soldiers, whose organic glowing bodies are rendered just as well as the armors themselves.
  • Even beyond all of that is the Air Force One sequence. The only CGI in that entire set piece was the plane itself, the compositing, and drawing in Iron Man over his stand-in actor. Everything else was done practically; real people jumping out of a real plane, grabbing each other in the air, and so forth. It all culminated in a massive zip-line rig, dropping each one into the water in sequence.
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Most of the effects were done by ILM, and they did not disappoint.
  • The Helicarriers falling to the sea is absolutely amazing.
  • While the Falcon has some changes from the comics version, the Winter Soldier looks almost identical to the comics, which is pretty impressive. Who didn't love seeing him flying around and generally being awesome? Whoever did the flight effects for him needs a medal.
  • The Winter Soldier's metal arm is a sight to behold, especially since set photos showed an unconnected metal case for the actor's arm. In the film, it's a seamless, smooth limb.
  • From the start of the film, aboard the pirate ship, Cap appears a true super-soldier, with speed and agility and strength that the first film's CGI didn't catch. None of the Batman films show as well what a superior-trained human can do. Very realistic.
  • The shield tricks, which have taken a massive level in awesome. In general, the action scenes are very well done. In particular are the fights between Captain America and the Winter Soldier, which many have come to regard as some of the best hand-to-hand combat scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Elderly Peggy Carter is not without its flaws, but considering how bad old age prosthetic makeup used to look in movies, the digital solution that Lola VFX came up with was far more convincing and allowed Hayley Atwell's performance to show through without restriction. How they did it is detailed here.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): The world in this movie is created largely through intentional use of practical effects, sets, makeup, and puppetry. All over the place with a fantastic mixture of sets, CGI, makeup, costumes and puppets, but on the DVD Commentary, James Gunn points out an easily missed one: many people assumed Rocket's facial expressions were done with motion capture, but this actually wasn't possible because of how different human and racoon faces are. So all that emotion comes directly from the animators.
• Avengers: Age of Ultron: Ultron looks fantastic. Given there was worry that he'd be poorly designed (not helped by a rumour that he'd have a more humanoid face), but the final product has gotten generally positive acclaim.
• Ant-Man:
  • The digital de-aging of Michael Douglas to look like he did in 1989 is very impressive - it almost looks like he came off of the set of Wall Street to film a scene for a movie that wouldn't be finished for another 25 years. You can read about the impressive process used to de-age him here in this article.
  • Near the end of the movie, the Quantum Realm sequence.
  • The film's awesome looking Yellowjacket suit? It doesn't actually exist, it's completely CGI. The sheer number of people who thought it was a real costume speaks volumes of how impressive it is.
  • The depiction of Ant Man's size-changing looks insanely cool at times.
• Captain America: Civil War: For Tony's first scene in the film, they show a recreation of a memory from 1991 of the last time Tony saw his parents before they were killed. Robert Downey Jr. has been brilliantly de-aged to the point where he is a convincing young man in his late teens/early twenties (and accurately resembles the real Robert Downey Jr from 1991).
• Doctor Strange (2016):
  • The Ancient One opening Strange's third eye is one of the most spectacular, exhilarating sequences ever put to film.
  • The fight scenes take place in a separate reality that works like M.C. Escher's art. The interactions are seamless. A special mention has to be the fight scene done while time is reversing itself.
  • Special mention also must be given to Strange's cape which has a mind of its own AND interacts with SEVERAL characters, like beating a Zealot via repeatedly smashing it's head against the floor, and stops Kaecillius' blows. And yet, it still looks exactly like cloth.
• Spider-Man: Homecoming: The CG model of the homemade suit in the third act is so photorealistic that even Tom Holland couldn't tell it from the real deal (as seen in the BTS footage).
• Thor: Ragnarok: The motion capture animations for both Surtur and Korg are so life-like you can forget that they are not computer animated creations.
• Black Panther (2018): The film continues the trend of looking absolutely stunning with the scenery of Wakanda. It's Afrofuturism on a scale that has never been seen before in film, and it is absolutely gorgeous. On top of that, there are the Black Panther and Golden Jaguar costumes, which take Tony Stark's automated armouring and make it look like the work of an amateur. And not forgetting the Ancestral Realm, with its beautiful purple skies over the savannah and out the window of an Oakland apartment.
• Captain Marvel (2019): The CGI effects used to de-age Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg due to the film taking place in the 1990s. Especially for Jackson, in that they made him look even younger than he did back in the actual 90s with Jackson himself being shocked at the results.
• Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame: Thanos is especially detailed and designed in a way where he looks human, but not to the point where it becomes Narm. Allowing him to fit into the cast without any problems or breaking the suspension of disbelief.
• Spider-Man: Far From Home: The Elementals all actually look like their respective elements given human-ish forms. Special mention to the Fire Elemental (aka Molten Man), who really does look like a walking pile of molten slag and lava. Not only them, but Mysterio and his mystic abilities are just breathtaking as they were for Doctor Strange. Humourously, they are all considered this In-Universe, seeing as they are all fake, made with the same incredible special effects that Mysterio used in the comics.
• Werewolf by Night (2022): The whole special presentation is spectacularly done with practical effects being used extensively, in the same vein as Universal Horror films from the 30s-40s.

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