10 CGI Moments In The MCU We All Missed

A gripe that's become all too common in recent years is the quality of Marvel's special effects. In the old days, the visuals of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemed critic-proof. But now, we can't go one instalment without viewers complaining about obvious green-screen, unfinished VFX, or the dreaded uncanny valley.

But the reality is this - no matter how good 99% of the computer-generated imagery is, there will always be someone who focuses on the unconvincing 1%.

Ironically, the reason why a lot people aren't praising the CGI in the MCU... is because they didn't know it was CGI. Sometimes, the tech wizards perform the impossible, by crafting visuals indistinguishable from reality. Some of these moments are well-known, such as Thor's eyepatch, the quantum suits in Endgame, and Tony Stark's face in Iron Man 3.

But not only has there been a lot of flawless CGI in recent movies that fans didn't notice, there's a couple of digital effects in the earliest instalments which most viewers never picked up on.

Although there will always be special effects you see right through, this CGI fooled everyone.

If you cast your mind back to the Eternals expose at 2019's D23 event, you may have noticed Thena looks quite different to how she appeared in the movie. Originally draped in armour akin to a medieval knight, Angelina Jolie's finalised outfit was sleek, and accompanied with a billowing, white skirt. After making this observation, one would naturally assume the film crew revised her costume shortly after this expose.

However, the alteration in Thena's outfit occurred after Angelina Jolie shot all of her scenes! Wanting to show off Jolie's dance-like grace, visual effects supervisor, Matt Aitken, decided to to tweak Thena's outfit frame-by-frame with the power of digital effects. So, when you are looking at all the Eternals lined up, everything on Thena from the neck down is computer-generated.

In the hands of an inferior visual company, this feat would've been impossible to pull off seamlessly. But since this CGI was executed by the Gollum-creating studio, Weta, it was a piece of cake.

The fact that most viewers couldn't pick up on this visual, despite Thena appearing throughout the 157 minute film makes this feat all the more impressive.