James Cameron Pans Marvel VFX: “Not Even Close” To ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ – Watch

deadline.com:

Maverick filmmaker James Cameron has again come after Marvel — this time, drawing an unfavorable comparison between the studio’s ILM-produced VFX and those overseen by Weta for his forthcoming 20th tentpole, Avatar: The Way of Water.

When asked in a recent video interview with Comicbook.com (which you can view above) about the extreme amount of visual effects work being produced today — first and foremost, for superhero-driven programming — Cameron acknowledged its positive impact in driving the art form forward.  “Obviously, the big comic book superhero films have been driving the sheer volume of the industry, and the rising tide of technique raises everybody together.

It gives you higher quality artists. You’ve got more tools and plug-ins and code. You’ve got more talented people writing code, and simulations, and all that sort of thing out there,” he said. “Then, as we’re putting our team together, and as Weta Digital is constantly having new hires, it’s coming out of that pool, so it improves everything together.” But even if Cameron was willing to admit to a recent raising of the bar across the VFX industry, he wouldn’t go so far as to put Marvel’s effects on the same plane as those of his films — specifically evaluating the motion-capture work for Josh Brolin’s Avengers villain Thanos, in comparison to that of his Avatar sequel. “Weta Effects, as it’s now known, is the best.

Right? I mean, ILM does great work, but when it comes to the kind of emotive facial stuff that we’re doing…I mean, Thanos? Come on.