8 Worst CGI Moments In The MCU That Marvel Fans Want To Forget About
There are many things to love about the MCU movies: the interesting and unorthodox superheroes, the actors’ performances, the gripping storytelling, the epic soundtrack, and of course, one of the most important aspects in the genre, the special effects quality in action scenes. When the DCEU and other superhero movies often have the inconsistency with their CGI performance, Marvel Studios excels in this matter, and rarely fails to deliver an absolute treat to the eyes of the audience, both in character design and fighting sequences.
However, even the mighty Marvel also has their misses when it comes to CGI, some of which can make the characters look utterly ridiculous, and give us the impression that they were done by a bunch of 12-year-olds. And, as hardcore superheroes fans, we simply cannot let this slide. Let’s take a look at the MCU’s worst CGI nightmares in its 15 years of history that fans want to unsee right away.
#1. Bruce Banner’s floating head inside the Hulkbuster (Avengers: Infinity War)
Source: Marvel Studios
In Avengers: Infinity War, after getting beaten to a pulp by Thanos, Hulk refuses to come out and fight against the Mad Titan’s army, which forces Banner to don the Hulkbuster’s suit (quite ironic) to join the battle. The sequences remain largely ok until this scene where Banner’s head pops out of the armor, which makes him look like those bubble-head toys that you often see in cars and taxis. Do your homework, Marvel.
#2. Axl’s head (Thor: Love and Thunder)
Source: Marvel Studios
Love and Thunder might be a bad movie, but at least the CGI quality remains intact for most of the time. However, this part when Axl’s head pops up in Thor’s telepathy link is truly abominable. Somehow, Marvel makes it even worse in the Disney+ release version. Sometimes it’s hard to believe this is from a 2021 blockbuster movie.
#3. Doctor Strange’s third eye (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)
Source: Marvel Studios
In the much-anticipated sequel, Stephen Strange gets his hand on the Darkhold to send himself back to Earth-616 and stop the Scarlet Witch. As a result, he awakens his third eye at the last scene of the movie, and then opens it again in the mid-credit alongside Clea. The eye just looks weird and out of place, and Marvel fans are crossing their fingers, praying that they won’t have to see this hideous eye again in the future.
#4. Pip the Troll
Source: Marvel Studios
The Eternals has done well with the visual effects, especially considering the characters’ immense abilities that can cover a lot of ground. However, Marvel somehow messed it up designing Pip the Troll, who looks like a badly-rendered version of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings franchise.
#5. M.O.D.O.K (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)
Source: Marvel Studios
One of Quantumania’s biggest Ls is how it fails to convey one of the most iconic villains in Marvel Comics, M.O.D.O.K. M.O.D.O.K’s character arc in the movie is pretty underwhelming, and his horrendous design doesn’t help, either. The fact that Marvel tried to fuse Darren’s face into M.O.D.O.K’s model turns him into a lesser version of Humpty Dumpty, and is a blight to the eyes of the audience.
#6. Goose the Flerken (Captain Marvel)
Source: Marvel Studios
We all love Goose the Flerken, the fluffy feline (?) furball in the 2018 movie, but we also have to admit that his design wasn’t well-made enough. Sometimes his fur texture takes a weird turn, and THAT scene when he devours the whole Tesseract with his tentacle doesn’t look that spectacular either. Hopefully in the upcoming The Marvels, the studio will give Goose the attention and care he deserves.
#7. Najma’s death (Ms. Marvel)
Source: Marvel Studios
The fight between Kamala Khan and Najma in the last episode of the series is quite a spectacle, however, the villain’s demise leaves a lot to be desired. The way Najma turns into crystals and then crumbles to the ground, with her skeleton exposed looks too cartoonish for a Marvel series, and it makes Kamala’s final victory seems a bit less impressive.
#8. Everything in She-Hulk (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law)
Source: Marvel Studios
All the other bad CGI moments in the MCU couldn’t possibly hold the candle against She-Hulk, who looks just…wrong from start to finish. The whole series is basically an abominable display of bad CGI: the character’s model looks weird, the expressions don’t match, the terrible green skin shading doesn’t mesh well with the clothes, and doesn’t get me started with that cursed twerking scene. Throughout the series, the green figure of She-Hulk sticks out like a sore thumb, and the lazy writing overall doesn’t help, either.
Which one do you think is the worst CGI moment in Marvel Studios’ history? Let us know in the comment.