The Morning Watch: Behind The VFX Of Marvel's WandaVision, Michelle Yeoh Career Breakdown & More
(The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fan-made productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.)
In this edition, see how visual effects artists brought "WandaVision" to life in both grand and subtle ways. Plus, watch legendary actor Michelle Yeoh break down some of her most iconic performances and share anecdotes from beloved movies. And finally, the folks from Honest Trailers take us back to the early days of Marvel movies with a look at how bonkers both "Ghost Rider" movies were.
The real magic trick of WandaVision
It is one of the biggest misconceptions of the modern filmmaking era to just dismiss all CG effects as being inherently bad and fake-looking. Fine, we've got some horrendous CG-characters, and the technology has definitely come a long way since the very early days of computer graphics. But special effects doesn't just mean CG-created characters or giant sky beams in the third act of a superhero movie.
Case in point, this new behind-the-magic video from Industrial Light & Magic about their work on "WandaVision." While they do show some of the "obvious" effects used to bring Vision or Wanda's powers to life, what is most impressive are the smaller scenes and the nuanced ways FX is used for things like Wanda's house and all its furniture.
Michelle Yeoh breaks down her best characters
Michelle Yeoh is an absolute treasure, and "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is just the latest proof to it. But long before she kicked all sorts of multiversal ass in a movie about about having a mid-life crisis and accepting your decisions in life, Yeoh gave us many acclaimed roles.
In an interview with GQ, Yeoh breaks down some of her best known roles, from being a Bond girl in "Tomorrow Never Dies," to her groundbreaking role in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and doing her own stunts, to "Police Story 3."
Ghost Rider gets an honest trailer
Years before the MCU became a cultural juggernaut, before superhero movies could be nominated for, or even win Oscars, there was "Ghost Rider." Released at a time where superhero movies were both embarrassed to be thought as superhero movies, but also outright weird and chaotic.
Nic Cage's only on-screen live-action superhero movie is worthy of that description, as he plays daredevil with totally-not-CG-abs Johnny Blaze. The honest trailer is rather kind to the two movies, calling them "loud, fun, and barely make sense" but also great comic book adaptations because of those exact things. Indeed, the biggest criticism of the franchise is that it changed Johnny's origin story for absolutely no reason in the sequel. Now, if only they'd introduce Cage's Johnny Blaze into the Avengers...