Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania received one of the lowest review scores from critics for an MCU movie. The biggest complaint among reviewers appears to be the lackluster visual effects. Now, the VFX employees for Ant-Man 3 have revealed the reason for the subpar visual effects.

Ant-Man 3 is mostly set in the Quantum Realm with a majority of the scenes taking place in a digitally created environment. Reports say that the set-piece environments were largely neglected because the manpower was needed elsewhere.

Three unnamed VFX technicians and artists who worked on Quantumania revealed in a Vulture interview that manpower was pulled from Quantumania to work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The employees revealed that the workload was so heavy that employees resorted to taking naps under desks because there wasn’t enough time to travel to their homes and back between shifts.

This is what one employee said about their experience working on Quantumania:

This was like a second wave of what happened with James Cameron on Titanic, where the compositors were basically taking naps under their desks, because there wasn't enough time between shifts to go back home, then come back.

Now, the entirety of the industry that has been touched by Marvel is permanently seared, and that's what's causing the most burnout.

Despite middling reviews, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is performing very well at the box office. The movie has grossed over $257 million worldwide in its first five days. However, the Vulture report suggests that Marvel Studios focused more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever leading to the heavy workload for VFX professionals involved with Quantumania.

"A lot of us are sitting here thinking, The money is there. Why is it not coming down? Marvel spending a bit more money to pay more VFX people wouldn't make that much of a difference for the executives all the way at the top," another employee shared. "But if it comes down to them not being comfortable with their bank numbers and us working until burnout, we lose out every time. Honestly, I equate it to human greed."

The report also suggests that shortcuts were made and "certain things were used to cover up incomplete work." Editorial cuts were also done to avoid showing much action and VFX in the movie. It is likely that there wasn’t enough time for the team to render the visual effects in time for the movie’s release.

Unfortunately for the VFX team, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released as scheduled. The movie would have no doubt had better reviews had the visual effects been polished a little bit more.

Owen Gleiberman from Variety said in his review, "if this is what Phase 5 looks like, God save us from Phases 6, 7, and 8." Hopefully, Marvel does a better job with the VFX in future movies. The new Disney strategy of focusing on quality rather than quantity should most definitely also apply to its feature films, especially one that kicks off an entire Phase and introduced the main bad guy.