Marvel & DC Are Fixing 1 Huge Superhero Filming Criticism With Their Biggest Upcoming Movies

Both Marvel and DC seem to be listening to a common criticism that has been present in the superhero movie discourse for several years now. Over the past twenty years, Marvel and DC movies have transformed the landscape of the film industry, transforming comic book adaptations into cultural phenomena that transcends the source material. Apart from their interconnected storytelling and ambitious scope, superhero movies’ visual effects have continuously pushed the boundaries, and the numbers reflect it. Just as superhero movies have often claimed the top spots at the box office, budgets have also increased to unprecedented levels.

The superhero movie genre doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. As of 2024, the MCU’s movie and TV slate has dozens of announced and unannounced projects in various stages of development, and James Gunn’s first chapter of the DCU, “Gods and Monsters” is composed of at least twelve movie and TV projects. Both the MCU and the DCU, as well as Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and DC’s Elseworlds projects, will continue to add more starpower, more characters, and more visual fanfare to the genre. The latter aspect, in particular, may be coming with an unexpected twist.

Superman And Deadpool & Wolverine Are Making Good Use Of Practical Resources

Marvel And DC’s Next Movies Seemingly Use Lots Of Practical Effects And Real Sets

Deadpool & Wolverine and Superman apparently use plenty of practical effects.Deadpool & Wolverine set photos showed a fully suited-up Ryan Reynolds and a fully suited-up Hugh Jackman performing their fight moves on a snowy, barren land, both in front of a massive “20th Century Fox” logo. Months later, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s official trailers offered a first glimpse at this specific action sequence, and it looks almost exactly the same as it did during filming. Similarly, Superman set footage shows plenty of building dressings, environmental damage, cars, and actual extras present in each scene — most of which may appear unchanged in Superman‘s final cut.

Deadpool & Wolverine and Superman‘s fully practical costumes are also a welcome surprise. Although Deadpool & Wolverine might enhance Wolverine’s costume and animate Deadpool’s eyes with CGI, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds did wear real costumes during filming. Superman set photos show that David Corenswet is wearing a full Superman suit, complete with an actual cape. Every other hero and villain in Superman‘s cast has also been spotted wearing a full costume. Superhero movies tend to add capes in post-production for the sake of efficiency, but the flow and movements of a CGI cape can’t compare to those of a real cape.

Why Practical Effects Are Still Necessary In Superhero Movies

Some Details Are Still Impossible To Recreate Using Only CGi

While CGI has reached incredible highs in the past twenty years, there are many details that it simply can’t recreate perfectly. These details are so subtle that they can’t be grouped or defined as a single challenge to overcome. For instance, Avengers: Infinity War‘s Iron Man Mark 50 armor and Spider-Man’s MCU suits capture every physical aspect of materials and designs that don’t exist in real life, such as nanotech. Yet, many of the MCU’s CGI costumes are visibly fictional, while the 2008 Iron Man Mark 3 armor and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man costumes look and feel completely real down to the last smudge and thread.

Minuscule imperfections in the materials, design, movement, and weight distribution of practical effects are difficult to recreate with CGI. Besides, practical effects have to be carefully planned with months of anticipation, and they can’t be changed at the last minute. This is part of why Tony Stark’s early Iron Man armors come across as heavy objects quite effectively: Robert Downey Jr. really was wearing plates that limited his movement. Although it would be impossible to film a superhero movie exclusively with practical effects, a certain degree of realism is always beneficial to each performance.

Locations are easier to recreate with VFX than costumes, as actors don’t interact with the set as much as they do with the costumes and accessories they’re wearing. However, practical sets allow the actors to understand exactly where the characters are and how they should behave much more clearly than green screens. While state-of-the-art tools like The Volume provide an instant look at the background the camera will see, an actual set with its own weather conditions, natural scenery, and daylight (or lack thereof) is yet to be surpassed by any artificial resource.

Marvel And DC’s Early Practical Effects Still Hold Up Today

Many Marvel And DC Effects Still Look Great Decades Later

Many VFX-heavy scenes in early superhero movies have aged poorly, but on the other hand, many practical effects still stand out due to their inherently realistic qualities. For instance, Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher’s Batman sets continue to look unmistakably real despite their extravagant designs. Almost thirty years later, The Flash‘s Gotham City and Central City can’t compare. Green Goblin’s armor and Doctor Octopus’ tentacles in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies look palpable, tangible, just like every other object in the scenes they appear in. Almost two decades later, and the same weapons lack the same qualities in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

CGI characters such as Avengers: Infinity War‘s Thanos and The Avengers‘ Hulk have proved the exceptional capabilities of computer-generated effects. However, practical makeup doesn’t fall too far behind. Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Hoult’s Beast make-up may have taken several hours to apply for 2007’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class, but it remains unparalleled, at least in comparison to Beast’s motion-capture appearance in The Marvels‘ post-credits scene. Moreover, Colin Farrell’s prosthetic Penguin make-up in The Batman and the upcoming The Penguin series proves that Batman Returns‘ practical approach to Danny Devito’s Penguin was spot-on.

Practical Effects Will Only Help CGI Work Better In Superhero Movies

Marvel And DC Can Reach A Good Balance Between Digital And Practical Effects

CGI will only continue to improve in the coming years, and it will be easy to create and recreate effects that would have been impossible only a few years ago. Still, it doesn’t seem like practical effects will go anywhere anytime soon. CGI has advanced so much that it can be used to enhance practical effects — like capes and the MCU’s Iron Man suits — and complement them with details that can’t be included otherwise. In the days of Richard Donner’s Superman, this would have been prohibitively expensive, and the results wouldn’t have been the same.

On the other hand, modern superhero movies have reached the opposite extreme and overused CGI to create effects as simple as regular guns and regular rooms. After all, an all-CGI approach is much easier to plan for during pre-production and much easier to modify in post-production. But fortunately, Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine and DC’s Superman suggest that the superhero movie genre can strike a balance between CGI and practical effects. Even though the scope of upcoming movies like Avengers: Secret Wars may surpass anything that came before them, there will always be space for practical effects.