For the first time since November, fans got a look at the upcoming MCU series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The short trailer gives viewers an early taste of Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters and highlights a focus on Jennifer’s life and the fact that she seems to have caught “being the Hulk” from her cousin Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo. In the trailer, we see Maslany as the mousy-haired human Jennifer, but we also see her sleek, fashionable look as the She-Hulk. Unfortunately, much of the talk has been about how the quality of the CG model used was not great.
How one feels about computer-generated visual effects is often generational. If you're old enough to remember the weird, blocky CGI animation of the late '80s and early '90s, then even the lowest-budget VFX on The Flash looks remarkable. For younger viewers, though, this can be more discerning. Nonetheless, when it comes to Marvel Studios, fans expect the CG visual effects to be nothing short of spectacular. So, the janky and cartoonish She-Hulk seen in the trailer has seemingly shocked forgiving and unforgiving fans alike, but it's not yet time to panic about the quality of She-Hulk's predominantly CGI lead.
Fans today are spoiled when it comes to CG visual effects, especially in Marvel Studios projects. In any given scene in Avengers: Endgame, there are likely more visual effects on the screen than practical effects. Such an obvious miss on the character of She-Hulk seems almost impossible for the MCU. Thankfully, it probably is impossible for a character model like that to ever show up in a finished product. For that same movie, folks love to point out how the Hulk appeared in the Wakanda battle in the trailer but not in the film. Sure, it might have been to preserve a secret, but it might be because the Hulk was the only model they had done for the trailer. Ruffalo in the Hulkbuster armor might still have been incomplete when Marvel Studios needed a trailer.
To further showcase this point, compare the models seen for Hulked-out Jennifer and the Smart Hulk we see throughout the trailer. While Jennifer looks like a video game character from the dawn of the Xbox 360 era, Smart Hulk looks a lot like the Hulk we know from the films. The CG visual effects models used to turn Mark Ruffalo into the Smart Hulk have existed since Endgame, so it takes much less work to put them into a new series. For Jennifer, visual effects artists have to create the models from scratch. Things like skin color, texture, and all the other minute details that help make these characters look more “real” take time and fine-tuning.
The other example to check out in the trailer are the scenes we’ve seen before. In November, during the so-called Disney+ Day, Marvel Studios released short teasers for their upcoming projects. The only shot we saw of She-Hulk was in scenes wearing the dark purple and white unitard. It’s safe to assume that these are the shots the visual effects artists have worked on the longest. That scene appears at the beginning of the trailer, and it looks markedly different than it did in November. The muscle definition in her legs and arms and even the way her hair moves in the shot are all much smoother than they were before. Even the shot of the transformed Abomination is cleaner, given that his character model appeared in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
If She-Hulk: Attorney at Law debuted at the end of this month, then yeah, it would be time to panic about the way the CGI Jen looks. Yet, the series won’t come out until August, giving the visual effects team months to get the episodes right. Those teams work on these shows until their debut, and sometimes even after. Press screeners for Marvel series often have temporary visual effects only a few weeks before the show's premiere. Since She-Hulk is a brand-new character, the model will certainly improve with time.
So, fans of She-Hulk, don’t fret. While the CG visual effects in the trailer for She-Hulk were not up to Marvel Studios’ usual standard, the trailer was only meant to give us a taste of the show. In a couple of months, we’re sure to see another trailer, and if Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk isn’t improved a great deal, then it will be time to panic.
See Tatiana Maslany make her MCU debut in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law in August on Disney+.