She-Hulk

[FnordChan Member Find all posts View Profile Close FnordChan]

There're two things that factor into the success of any artistic endeavor: intent and execution. In the case of She-Hulk and the last two THOR features I don't think the execution is bad but I don't agree with the intent, which is let's tell the audience that we already know this shit is dumb as fuck by winking at them first. "Come on now. A She-Hulk? A guy in a porcupine suit? We know, we know."

I enjoy Taika Watiti’s take on Thor but I agree that it’s gone in for zany, self-aware hijinx over a more serious take on the subject. It works for me but I know folks who bounced off those flicks hard and I won’t argue the point. Would I prefer to see Thor taken more seriously and presented at face value? Generally, yes, that’s how I’d like to see all of the Marvel stuff presented, and if the series changes to, say, do straightforward adaptations of Barry Windsor-Smith material then I’m all for it. At the same time, I think if you are going to do winking, self-referential humor then She-Hulk is absolutely the place to do it and that the series did a great job with that. Even if you weren’t into the clips you’d been checking out you may want to jump ahead to the finale and see how they handled the “we need to wrap things up with a big fight scene” schtick. I thought it was a hoot and very well done.

Broadly speaking, for both the comics and the MCU screen adaptations, I feel that once you have an audience spend enough time in a shared universe it’s reasonable to acknowledge that the audience is probably pretty used to the genre conventions of superhero fiction and having fun with it, whether it’s winking asides or self-referential humor. That’s not all I want from superhero fiction - I thought the recent “World’s Greatest Detective meets Zodiac” tae on The Batman was great and that movie is serious as a heart attack - but I’m not offended by it. Let’s have some fun with the whole shared universe concept and acknowledge it when things are goofy and holdovers from the Silver Age. And, hopefully, let’s also have some parts of the universe play it straight when they need to. Again, no arguments if that doesn’t work for you, but I think that’s part of the fun of the shared experience, even if it does include some winking and nudging at the audience.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

Hollywood's inexplicable hard-on for CGI has ruined so much stuff.

It isn't inexplicable. CGI makes effects work faster, cheaper and easier.

[Marshall Crist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marshall Crist]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but all I ever hear is how expensive CGI is.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but all I ever hear is how expensive CGI is.

I heard that Marvel treat their contractors like shit with low budgets, changing requirements and insane deadlines, which may explain the ropy CGI.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

I heard that Marvel treat their contractors like shit with low budgets, changing requirements and insane deadlines, which may explain the ropy CGI.

I've been following that story for a while as it interests me. The effects houses have been in disarray for a long time now. Effect houses have for the last couple decades been taking on huge projects even though they know they will be working at a loss. So we have situations where one week an effects house wins the Oscar for best visual effects and the next week they declare bankruptcy. It's a nutty situation.

Marvel is not the only villian in here but they are a major one. They provide so much of the industries work that they have the sway to demand basically what they want and there's a lot of effects houses that say Marvel are incredibly unreasonable with their expectations and demands but they have to kow tow.

Which may not be moral but is an approach that should lead to good results- at least until that industry goes bust. I think ropey effects like She Hulk happen simply because the job is just that hard. Recreating a human is the hardest thing because we look at humans all day and our brains are so trained to notice everything about a human subconsciously. I'm not aware of a persons pores changing shape when they talk but I am aware there's something wrong when I watch a cgi human whos pores stay the same size. I won't know what's wrong, I'll just know it's wrong.

I think with She Hulk that level of work didn't match what is on offer for ba budget for a TV show. Not that the cgi bothered me that much. I would rather just watch a good actress than average cgi and its a shame the actress couldn't be worked in (I assume she's motion captured but that only goes so far).

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but all I ever hear is how expensive CGI is.

Good CGI is expensive, comparatively, but even good CGI is cheaper than practical effects, especially anything on-set. George Romero said digital blood in Diary of the Dead probably had the effect of doubling the budget due to never needing to do cleanup and resets for gore gags not functioning as desired on the set and ruining a take.