How It Feels to Watch a Review Overrun With Extensive Sketches

Imagine you want to see The Avengers. For the sake of arguments, let's pretend said film is 120 minutes long. Also, most online reviewers I'm thinking of don't have work behind a paywall and their work is easy to access, so let us also say you are within walking distance of a good theater, and you have a free ticket.

Now... what are your expectations? Very simple: you expect to sit down, relax, and watch your movie. Your 120 minutes of movie. Yes, yes, give or take an ad, maybe the previews are interesting, but really, you're there for the movie. Your 120 minutes of movie.

Imagine this. You think the movie is about to start, but as the lights dim, the movie does not start. What does start is a vaudeville performance related to The Avengers. It lasts about three, four, five minutes, and then it kind of segues into the movie proper. Of course, your reaction is one of partial irritation because what the heck was that? But it's over now, and the movie's started, so everything's fine. However, after the first action scene, there it is again. The vaudeville.

To be fair, you're likely not watching a train wreck. A lot of the jokes land, the music is catchy, and the actors seem to be really into it. In and of itself, it's a good performance. The biggest issue is just, you know, why is there a vaudeville performance in your bloody Avengers movie? It acts like it's related, but in reality, it barely is. More frustrating than entertaining, really.

Imagine this goes on. After every action scene, you can sense it. You can sense the switch. Every time, you're right. It's by around the middle of the movie (and the umpteenth vaudeville sketch) that you truly begin to see the real problems.

The immersion is completely ruined; you can't get into the movie anymore because right when an important point has been or is about to be made, the movie abruptly stops, and you're watching a performance in a completely different genre. A performance that you now realize has its own through-line and plot, so you have that you have to pay attention to as well, apparently. But that's not the real problem. As you watch The Avengers take a backseat to vaudeville again, you realize that The Avengers is not 120 minutes. That's how long the runtime said the movie was going to be. What it failed to tell you was that the 120 minutes included both the entertainment you intended to see AND the sketches that are eating into the runtime of the entertainment you intended to see. There is an unmistakable feeling that someone or a group of someones wanted to put the vaudeville in because they wanted it in for personal reasons. Regardless of how it affects the movie proper.

The results of misguided direction at best. The results of a frustrated indie filmmaker with too much creative control at worst.

When all is said and done, you feel slightly gypped. It's free entertainment and easy enough to access, but that's not what's bothering you. You know the final product of the movie could have been so much better. If only it hadn't been bogged down by so many vaudeville performances.