SFX Supervisor Chris Wells says why The Avengers is the best superhero movie he’s ever seen

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Hydraulx is the Special Effects company behind a few movies you may know, including GREEN LANTERN, BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, THE BOOK OF ELI, 2012, and THE INCREDIBLE HULK. And on all of those I just mentioned, Chris Wells was the supervisor. This is important to know because these are the people (with Chris Wells in charge again) that are crafting the opening sequence to THE AVENGERS, and after seeing a rough cut of the thing here’s what Well had to say in a recent interview:

“We’re doing… a whole intro that happens before you start even getting the titles and it’s pretty big. There’s nothing small in this movie. I went to a screening with all the temporary visual effects and it was pretty fleshed out. It’s a long movie but it doesn’t feel like it.”  Insofar as any thoughts about what comes after that opening sequence go: “I think they nailed both [the character development and the action]. Joss and I have worked on some projects before and he does a very good job with characters. Since this is the first time that we see these guys together as a unit, he had to address all their personal dealings with one another. I think he did a very good job of setting up the characters based on what we know  from the Marvel franchise, integrating them together with all their differences and similarities and then getting on with business. And just when you think the movie is a character piece it just goes nuts.”

Wells finished up by saying that while he isn’t much of a fan of superhero movies (despite having worked on quite a few),THE AVENGERS has gone far beyond his expectations. “I promise you it’s not going to be boring,’ he said. ‘This thing has gone so big that Marvel are dwarfing their other franchises. For people who enjoy the comics and haven’t really liked the way some of the characters were treated in other movies, I think they’re going to be a little more appeased by this one. Especially the Hulk. They let the Hulk be Hulk and that’s great. He acts more like the comic book Hulk. It’s fun. My biggest problem with every single superhero movie is I don’t think the payoff ever matches the build up. This one definitely does.”