Corridor Crew Highlights the Problem with Modern Visual Effects

I know some dismiss Corridor Crew for their forays into AI-generated imagery and the tone of their videos. But I remain a fan, and in particular, of their “VFX Artists React” videos because I think they do a good job of instructing the general populace about the reality of visual effects.

A frequent refrain in their “React” videos is that bad visual effects are often not the fault of the artists creating said effects, nor are they a reflection of those artists’ skill and talent. Rather, they’re a result of artists simply not being given enough time. The modern visual effects industry is essentially in a race to the bottom. Studios are constantly outbidding each other to work on effects-heavy movies like Marvel and DC’s superhero titles even as those movies’ producers pile on the pressure via numerous changes, tight deadlines, and a general ignorance of the visual effects process.

It’s an untenable situation that Corridor Crew’s Jordan Allen explores in his latest video, first by interviewing Zach Mulligan — who worked on 2023’s The Flash, which Corridor Crew previously reviewed — and then second, by trying to create some visual effects under different time constraints. Not surprisingly, less time equals more crap.

In other words, the next time you see bad visual effects in a movie, place the blame accordingly, which is probably not with the artists who made them.