I’ve been reluctant to engage with most mainstream media recently — or to put it another way, I can’t think of the last time I felt compelled to rush out and experience anything fresh upon its release. Sure, you could chalk this up to simple burnout, but I realize now that it’s something else.
Nothing feels finished anymore.
I came to this realization while reading through Variety’s recent expose on all the troubles beset by Marvel Studios. The unfinished visuals for both theatrical and streaming releases had been no secret. Nor had the studio’s willingness to finalize effects after a film or show’s release. But something in this article really crystalised the problem.
According to Variety, “Marvel’s entire VFX battalion, including staffers and vendors, is struggling to keep pace with a never-ending stream of productions. This past February, when the credits rolled at the world premiere of Quantumania, shock rippled through the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood over some shoddy CGI. ‘There were at least 10 scenes where the visual effects had been added at the last minute and were out of focus,’ says one veteran power broker who was there. ‘It was insane. I’ve never seen something like that in my entire career. Everyone was talking about it. Even the kids of executives were talking about it.’”
Of course, Quantumania isn’t alone. Disney+ series She-Hulk was widely criticized for its unfinished CGI upon its initial trailer release and streaming premiere. Some of this was founded, while a great deal was voiced online by… let’s just call them bad actors and leave it at that.
Much has been said about Marvel’s overworking of VFX teams, but this goes beyond just the grueling demands of the studio. As the Variety article points out, internal sources “point to the She-Hulk VFX issues as a symptom of a deeper rot — namely a lack of oversight on script development. In the original arc of She-Hulk, a flashback of star Tatiana Maslany’s transformation into her Hulk character didn’t take place until Episode 8, the penultimate episode. But after Marvel’s brain trust watched footage, it realized the scene needed to happen in the pilot episode so that audiences could see more of the character’s backstory early. That meant that the VFX team was tasked with fixing the mess in post production.”
A similar case of poor planning and post-production updates can be found during the infamous release of Cats in 2019. In the days following the film’s release, Academy Award-winning director Tom Hooper requested that theaters upgrade to a new version with improved visual effects via direct download or hard drives set to be mailed out.
According to The Verge, “Hooper admitted to finishing the film just a day before its Friday premiere after working on it for ‘36 hours in a row.’ The last-minute tweaks left room for mistakes, apparently, like Judi Dench’s human hand slipping through unnoticed.”
In this case, “improved visual effects” translates to “completed.” Post-release updates such as these are no surprise to gamers, who are very familiar with the constant promise of a “first-day patch.”
For those not familiar, it’s practically guaranteed that anytime you boot up a newly released AAA title for the first time you will be met with a request to install a first-day patch. This is a series of upgrades, bug fixes, and other general improvements that the game’s developers have been working on leading up to its release.
Before a console game can make it on the market, it must gain a “certification” from the platform moderators. Think of it as a seal of approval from Playstation or Xbox that ensures buggy new releases aren’t going to inundate the market and tank their system. But this certification doesn’t promise you a quality gaming experience. And in the one to three months between a game gaining this approval and actually reaching customers, developers are grinding to fix whatever they can.
In many cases, this is great news. Improvements are always welcome. But these day-one patches can often give you an idea of how undercooked a new release actually is. For example, the disastrous launch of Fallout ‘76 came with a day-one patch that was larger than the actual game in order to address the litany of problems that were in the version of the game set to hit store shelves.
Shortly before the game’s release, Bethesda Games Studio gave fans a sense of what to expect. And it wasn’t good.
“Usually after years of development, we finally finish, release the game, and take a break,” Bethesda announced. “With 76, we feel we have not finished, but reached a starting line where all new work begins.”
So when you wonder why you don’t feel compelled to hit the theaters on opening weekend, catch a premiere on streaming, or drop almost $70 on the newest AAA title, maybe it’s because your enthusiasm isn’t being rewarded. Major studios are releasing unfinished products because they know an overworked staff of digital artists can patch it up later.
In these cases, you aren’t experiencing a final artistic vision. Just another in a long line of revisions.
And yes, as game developer Rami Ismail pointed out in a great 2016 blog post, “Developers are creatives working on a commercial schedule, leading to the ancient and never-broken rule that a developer will always be two weeks late for their deadline — no matter how big or small the deadline is.”
Artists of all kinds are subject to the whims of whatever industry they find themselves in. But consumers still have the right to let industry heads know that they expect to pay for finished products. The ability for continuous improvements doesn’t excuse selling something broken to the fans who are willing to show up on day one. This sort of loyalty should be rewarded. Not preyed upon.
