“Worst VFX In Any Superhero Movie In A Long Time”: The Flash CGI Broken Down By Real VFX Artists Reveals Terrible Moments You Missed

Real VFX artists watch The Flash and break down some of the worst CGI moments in the DC Extended Universe movie. On its release in theaters earlier this year, The Flash movie’s CGI was a major talking point among viewers, with the quality of the effects called into question by many. The scene featuring a number of The Flash cameos, including digitally recreated Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater, was one of the most contentious, but the scene of Ezra Miller’s The Flash saving a bunch of babies was also widely discussed.

In a video from Corridor Crew, VFX artists Sam Gorski, Wren Weichman and Jordan Allen break down a number of scenes from The Flash and offer their opinions on what was done right and what went wrong. They discuss the baby shower scene, the initial meeting between the two Barry Allens, Henry Cavill’s CGI cameo, The Flash’s time travel and the DC cameo scene, among others.

In regard to the baby shower scene, the three discuss various shots of both The Flash and the babies that don’t look quite right, like when Barry is eating and his head looks too large for his body. When it comes to Cavill’s digital cameo, Gorski points out that it looks wrong at least partially because the actor has no human expression on his face. Ultimately, though, Corridor Crew discuss what went wrong with The Flash’s CGI, attributing it to the state of the VFX industry now. As Allen explained:

You have to do it cheaper and faster and the notes come down from the top. And the execs don’t care at all about your time—working overtime, working weekends. They’re like, ‘just get it done by this deadline’ because at the end of the day, the shareholders of this kind of stuff, they don’t care about the CG quality. Will you, the audience member, eat it? If you will eat it and pay us for it, we’ll just throw it your way. So in a way, this backlash is to the benefit of VFX artists, because it’s like look, we’re not just going to keep taking this. At a certain point we expect a certain quality and a certain care to be given to the characters that we love.

Why The Flash’s CGI Is So Bad

The state of the VFX industry is no doubt a factor, as Allen pointed out. The expectations and working conditions of VFX artists have only gotten worse in recent years, which is partly why Marvel VFX workers voted to unionize, so that concerns such as these could be addressed. However, the VFX industry is largely non-unionized, meaning those not part of the Marvel union will still struggle with working conditions that will impact movies like The Flash.

Other factors involved in The Flash CGI specifically are the ambitiousness of the movie and the stylistic choices made by the filmmakers. Director Andy Muschietti explained the VFX of The Flash’s running scenes, saying they were meant to be from Barry’s point of view, and, “It was part of the design so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended.” Although Muschietti was speaking about specific sequences, it’s likely those stylistic choices applied to other scenes as well.

Ultimately, there were many reasons The Flash’s CGI looked so terrible, just like the visual effects were only one contributing factor leading to the movie’s box office failure. Given how much money was invested in The Flash only for it to bomb at the box office, hopefully Warner Bros. Discovery and the newfound DC Studios will learn from those mistakes. The Flash may go down in history for its infamously bad CGI—“some of the worst VFX in any superhero movie in a long time,” according to Gorski—but Hollywood can learn from the backlash and do better next time.