AUSTIN—Gritting their teeth while grinding out yet another piece of sales-department-mandated branded content exploring the film’s mythology, the writing staff of pop culture website Screen-On Time struggled to retain their composure, if not their professional dignity, while powering through four weeks of sponsored posts for a movie its own film critic called “contemptible trash” in his review last week. “It’s with a tinge of sadness and a considerable amount of contempt that I must confirm what any reasonably intelligent viewer already suspects: One of the summer’s most anticipated blockbusters has absolutely no redeeming value other than the potential sale of action figures,” reviewer Aaron Park said in his two-star panning of the film, which is currently the only advertisement on the website’s homepage, where readers are greeted with an interactive full-frame website-takeover treatment complete with an autoplaying pop-up movie trailer and links to a series of sponsored posts Park edited to “keep the lights on” after a tense hour-long all-hands staff meeting. “Loud, belligerent, and completely incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t a devotee of the franchise, this superhero fantasy is equal parts overbearing and utterly forgettable,” Park’s review read in part, underneath banner ads touting the film as a “mind-blowing thrill ride you won’t want to miss.” At press time, Park was begging his editors to remove an addendum to his review informing readers of a contest to win free tickets to a screening.

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