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Why Red Notice Looks So Cheap (Despite Netflix's Biggest Budget)
Netflix's biggest movie to date, Red Notice, looks oddly cheap even though it had a budget of $200 million and three of Hollywood's biggest stars as its leads. Netflix is constantly raising the bar when it comes to streaming, with massive hits like Stranger Things, Extraction, and Squid Game attracting millions of viewers around the world. The days where only theatrical releases could take over the box office and the pop culture landscape are clearly behind, and the production value of movies and shows that are exclusively aimed at streaming platforms continues to be on the rise. Nowhere is this more evident than in Red Notice's ridiculously high budget, which surprisingly didn't save the film from having subpar visuals.
Big budgets and high audience anticipation aren't enough to guarantee that a streaming release will be unanimously well-received. Platforms like Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+ still encounter problems in regards to logistics and general product quality from time to time. The risks they take have only been increased with the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the film industry—the biggest challenge being the production of high-concept titles that require large teams, complex visual effects, and countless shooting locations.
Such was the case with Red Notice. With Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds starring in Netflix's latest action-comedy, and with a budget that rivals those of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and F9, viewers naturally expect striking visual effects to accompany the film's high-octane action, or at least consistent visuals that don't take the audience out of the experience. However, Red Notice suffers from a subpar visual quality and many obvious uses of green screen. Although these flaws don't hurt the story, they do make the movie look more amateurish than similar films with lower budgets.
The reasons behind Red Notice's unpolished look seems to be a combination of different factors. First is the movie's overly ambitious premise, which mixes Indiana Jones with Ocean's Eleven and Rush Hour and takes Dwayne Johnson's John Hartley and Ryan Reynolds' Nolan Booth on a globe-trotting heist that grows more convoluted as the pair survives increasingly over-the-top action sequences. Second, all the different locations Red Notice's bold premise required were difficult to reconcile amidst the pandemic—production even had to stop while filming in Italy. And third, all the post-production work needed to smooth out these difficulties had to be added to the work Red Notice's crazy action already required. But most importantly, a big part of Red Notice's colossal budget was designated exclusively for its three stars, as nearly one quarter of its $200 million went directly to Johnson, Gadot and Reynolds.
Red Notice isn't the only big-budget release with choppy visuals in the last couple of years, however. Other titles like Marvel Studios' WandaVision and Eternals also struggled with their CGI, as they had to overcome obstacles like filming during the early days of the pandemic and completing all the VFX shots with little time before release. On the other hand, blockbusters like Dune and Army of Thieves managed to deliver more cohesive visuals with smaller budgets. From the amount of careful planning to the distribution of each movie's budget and sheer luck, there are many factors at play when it comes to getting the quality of the movie to match its budget. In the case of Red Notice, perhaps going back to the drawing board could have helped in the visual department.
