James Cameron is on the defensive about Avatar: The Way Of Water’s special effects, when compared to Marvel movies, saying that “they are not even close.”
The comparison was unavoidable as both follow the trend in Hollywood movies to use motion capture technology. Whereas older films used physical f/x, including puppets, costumes and makeup to realize characters like Chewbacca or Freddy Krueger, today actors do their performances in front of a blue screen, with sensors attached to their faces and bodies to capture those performances, and then render them to animated characters.
Cameron, of course, had extensive experience with physical f/x, in his famous blockbusters like Aliens and Titanic, but also from his days starting in movies, all the way back to Roger Corman productions like Galaxy of Terror and Battle Beyond the Stars. Cameron was also onhand to help transition Hollywood from physical f/x to digital f/x, having made both Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. In fact, many folks still don’t know large parts of the movie Titanic, including the ship itself, were digital f/x.
There is a long running debate about the merits of using computer graphics versus physical f/x in making movies, but in this case, Cameron is mainly talking about the competition between WETA Digital, who made the motion capture f/x for his Avatar movies, and Industrial Light and Magic, one of many companies that did the motion capture for Marvel movies, including the movies that Thanos appeared in, Avengers Infinity War, and Avengers Endgame.
So this is what James Cameron had to say when asked about it:
“Obviously the big comic book films have been driving the sheer volume of the industry… the rising tide of technique raises everybody together. It gives you higher quality artists, more tools and plug-ins and code [to use]. You’ve got more talented people writing code out there.
Our team at WETA Digital is constantly having new hires, and it’s coming out of that pool. So it improves everything. That said, WETA Effects, as it’s called now, is the best. Right? Industrial Light & Magic does great work, but when it comes to the kind of emotive facial stuff that we’re doing… Thanos? Come on. Give me a break. You saw [‘Avatar: The Way of Water’]. It’s not even close. It’s what WETA did.”
Cameron’s comments come in an unusual time. Marvel has recently pledged to make changes to the way they employ their visual f/x workers, as the workers have come out publicly, that they are being overworked, and not getting the opportunity to make their best work as a result.
So, Cameron is probably right about Avatar’s quality. But it may reflect more on better practices from the management of their projects, as opposed to the division that works on the Marvel movies. Given that both are under the Disney umbrella, it also indicates discrepancies the company will have to work on.
Source: Variety via Pledge Times
