The cathartic release of Endgame’s cataclysmic final battle between the gathered heroes of a decade’s worth of Marvel blockbusters and the forces of Thanos is a moment of abject, indulgent spectacle in a movie crammed full of them. So it’s befitting that its own VFX reel is equally indulgent.
Weta Digital have just released this new VFX reel of its work on Avengers: Endgame, primarily focusing on the film’s third act—which, understandably, required a considerable amount of effects work. How else you gonna have Tessa Thompson fly in on a winged horse while a Paul Rudd the size of of a skyscraper punches a giant armored space lizard in the face?
It, perhaps almost like Endgame itself at times, is a little too flashy for its own good. It cleverly interweaves the final FX shots from the film with behind-the-scenes greenscreen material from filming to blend together what was real and what wasn’t, but to a point that it almost obfuscates it. I want to see more of the actual behind-the-scenes stuff, not just watch the last battle again! I’ve got a Blu-ray for that.
But there’s still some fun little moments in here to glimpse, like the choreography of Captain Marvel going toe-to-toe with Thanos (or rather Josh Brolin in a hilariously torso’d mocap rig), or the fact that actually, all Chris Evans was actually spinning around when Cap revealed his worthiness to wield Mjolnir was the hammer’s shaft:
Does that still count as worthy? I’m sure someone will find a way to endlessly debate over it, either way.
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