The CGI of ‘She-Hulk’ is a mess. But there are some explanations for its low quality

The arrival of the first trailer for ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ has been accompanied by an unusual controversy in Disney productions. Above its multiple winks (more than expected in a Disney+ Marvel series) or the appalling ridicule made by the usual critics, accusing Disney of “politically correct” excesses for making a series with a female version of the Hulk, when the character was created… in 1980. Beyond all that, there has been talk of the lackluster CGI that graces the trailer.

In a series of these characteristics, the use of computer effects is essential: since the first appearance of the Hulk in ‘The Avengers’ (or even further, since the versions by Ang Lee in 2003 and Louis Leterrier in 2008, the technique has been to turn an actor (Eric Bana, Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo) into the emerald colossus of absolutely monstrous proportions, it seemed to make sense that She-Hulk would go through a similar process.

To do this, the actress who gives life to Jennifer Walters, Tatiana Maslany (whom we remember from series like ‘Orphan Black’) undergoes a transformation process that allows her to become a heroine of more than two meters and almost three hundred kilos of weight ( although in the series it seems to be taller… and have a little less volume). The problem: the CGI with which the transformation has been carried out does not seem to be the most appropriate. The CGI She-Hulk’s lack of detail and expressiveness has led to memes comparing her to Fiona, her green counterpart in ‘Shrek’

what could have happened

There are a few reasons for the low quality of ‘She-Hulk’ digital effects. The first, not obvious, deserves to be overlooked: the budget of a series like this is not comparable to that of a movie. A film like ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ starts with a budget of about 200 million dollars, while that of a series like ‘Hawkeye’ can be in the 150… for 6, 8 or even 10 chapters.

But while shows like ‘Hawkeye’ have hardly any spending on effects, ‘She-Hulk’ is another matter (at least in terms of sophistication and, above all, continuous screen presence). And if ‘She-Hulk has had to cover four and a half hours of usual and demanding CGI on screen (that is, nine episodes of 30 minutes) with less budget than is destined for a film of two, it is normal that the effects are resent.

But there are other reasons, and Screen Rant points to some of them: the massification of digital effects in absolutely any medium-high budget production (let alone whether it is a science-fiction or superhero blockbuster) and the needs of the industry have led to a certain precariousness of the sector in charge of that part of the movies and series. Especially compared to the times of ‘Jurassic Park’, where digital post-production took three years. Of the several hundred shots with digital effects in those days, we have taken them to two thousand in today’s films. VFX studios can’t cope and are increasingly tight on budget, staff and time.

Is there a solution for the drama?

Yes, of course. To begin with, we have the curious precedent of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, which after an overwhelmingly negative response from fans to the first design of the hedgehog for the film and a few videos made by fans that showed that everything could be improved, the production company made the rare and judicious decision to redesign Sonic. Outcome: the last big hit before the pandemic (and its sequel, one of the biggest in the post-COVID landscape)

And to continue, you have to keep in mind that ‘She-Hulk’ still has a vital few before it almost three months before its premiere on August 17. Enough time to polish and refine those effects, give them expressiveness and launch multiple graphic resources that give them depth and realism. You have to count on precedents like ‘Loki’, perhaps the Disney + series with the most digital effects before this, and which offered more than convincing results in sequences that were CGI in their entirety.

Perhaps the most judicious idea would have been an operation similar to the one carried out in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’: look for an actor (Chris Evans in that case) with the body of the hero and use punctual CGI to ” deflate it.” There (we are talking about 2011) the feeling was strange, but it worked, but here a more conservative solution has been chosen, in quotes: instead of looking for a gigantic female MMA fighter with a She-Hulk body and shrink her down by CGI when Jennifer Walters made her appearance, the opposite has been chosen. We are still far from a Marvel series starring Valentina Shevchenko.