Created to "deconstruct" the "cult of Madonna while trading on her star power", it was shot inside "stark" interiors and featured "twitchy" footage of the singer decked out in "enigmatic" that made her look like a "Byzantine queen".

[5] To start marketing the album, she embarked on a promotional tour across the United States and Europe; she performed at the Total Request Live studios in New York, the HMV store on Oxford Street, London, and appeared at BBC One's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Top of the Pops.

[12] That month, the Las Vegas Sun sent out a press release announcing that Madonna would kick off the 32-city US leg of a world tour on June 1 in San Francisco, California, but nothing was further confirmed.

[17][21][22] According to Caresse Henry, one of the "major complaints" fans had regarding 2001's Drowned World Tour was the lack of Madonna's "classic hits", thus, "[she] came to the conclusion that it was time to perform more of her entire repertoire".

[31] "Don't Tell Me" (2000) was rehearsed in two versions —one that featured the video of a French skyline as backdrop, used on the American leg and Paris shows, and one that sampled The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997), used on the remaining concerts of the tour.

[41] Equipment also included 130 rigging points, an arsenal of moving lights and four tons worth of Claire Brothers line array sound system.

[48][51] The third act, based on the work of Federico Fellini and carnavals, featured chorus girl-inspired corsets of "strong and graphic [...] sexy and sassy" colors, created by Lagerfield.

"Frozen" closed the act; the singer stood alone onstage and sang while the screens showed an excerpt from Flex (2000), a video instalation with an androgynous naked couple wrestling in water.

The segment ended with a video interlude set to a remixed "Bedtime Story"; it showed the singer dressed in white, singing in front of a mirror and lying down on a huge scanner.

The final numbers were "Music" and "Holiday"; the former was set to a slower, hip-hop mix and had a lighted staircase surrounding a DJ, while the latter had the singer and dancers walk on top of the catwalk as confetti fell from the roof.

Highlighting the contrast between "the barbarism of war and the necessity of love" in performances such as "American Life" and "Express Yourself", and praising the artist's "remarkably fun-loving and self-assured" mood throughout the entire night, Walters concluded his review by writing that Madonna had done "the most unexpected thing she could: She came back as a great concert singer".

[42] Dave Simpson from The Guardian expressed that, although "her star is supposedly waning (recent album American Life was her first-ever flop), this audio-visual spectacular is a reminder that there's no one like Madonna".

[37] Sean Piccoli from the Sun Sentinel said that, "vocally, [Madonna] was in fine, flexible form [...] the choreography, both of dancers and of projected visuals, was energizing and erotic in a playfully grown-up way that would never occur to Britney Spears".

[45] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani highlighted "Burning Up", "Material Girl", and "Like a Prayer", adding that the old songs served as a reminder "of what she does best: making us forget about the bad times, come together, release the pressure, and have a holiday".

[62] Howard Cohen from the Miami Herald opined that the tour "celebrates what that iconic name [Madonna] has meant for 20 years by dusting off many of her greatest hits", while Rochelle Brenner from The Palm Beach Post, felt that, "the old songs took on a new sound that seemed more fitting to the more mature" singer.

[63][64] The San Francisco Chronicle's Neva Chonin singled out the numbers "in which [Madonna] dispensed with lavish theatrics to play artist", such as "Frozen", "Burning Up", "Material Girl", and "Like a Prayer".

[57] The Toronto Sun's Jane Stevenson referred to "American Life" as the "biggest production number", but was critical of the third segment, Circus, which she considered the show's "weakest link", that was "saved" by the "wonderfully inventive" performance of "Die Another Day".

[46] Tony Clayton-Lea from The Irish Times questioned the inclusion of the singer's "least appealing hits" such as "Die Another Day" and "Hanky Panky", and said of the Slane concert: "Did Madonna rock?

[21] Howard Cohen pointed out the singer's "enviable body of pop hits", but felt the concert as a whole didn't "cohere" into a clear theme, comparing it to a "massive ice-cream sundae [...] the ultimate guilty pleasure, but also a load of empty calories".

[53][65] For Chart Attack's Elizabeth Chorney-Booth, "with a name like 'The Re-Invention Tour', one would expect to see Madonna at her absolute finest"; she was critical of the artist's attitude: "Back in the Blonde Ambition [sic] days, her general coldness read as ballsy bitchiness [...] with her new sense of concern for the well-being of the world, her whole onstage persona rings false".

[71] Peter Bowes from BBC News pointed out that, "politically, the concert hit a number of raw nerves with the audience [...] but afterwards, many expressed doubts and disappointment about the anti-war message".

[72] Howard Cohen opined that, "her anti-war clips trivialized the issue and felt about a year too late", and added that, by getting "whole-hog political", the singer "is no longer Madonna the brave".

[28] Robert Hilburn, from the Los Angeles Times, said that, "[Madonna] may feel her political move is trailblazing, but it felt labored [...] reflecting little of the daring and clarity of Sinéad O'Connor, Ani DiFranco and Patti Smith", and called for the singer to "bring back the sex".

[73] Finally, Orla Healy from the New York Post wrote that, "Madonna's blond ambition is fading to bland [...] instead of a sexy, flashy, fun-filled show, concertgoers Monday night got an endless dose of political and social commentary".

[79] On the same vein, MTV launched the Front and Center with Madonna contest, where fans were able to win "pit tickets" near the stage at certain concerts — Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Las Vegas, Washington DC and New York City.

[92] Lucy O'Brien noted that, despite being commercially successful, Re-Invention "somehow slipped beneath the mass media radar", and Madonna had to "promote [it] hard, particularly in the US"; she contributed this to "vastly inflated" ticket prices and the lackluster reception towards American Life.

Caresse Henry, the singer's manager, released a statement: "The entire crew, performers and staff, especially Madonna, were very saddened to hear about the accident but are hopeful that he will make a full recovery".

[97] On May 25, 2004, CBS announced a "two-hour, live special" of the tour;[98] according to People magazine, the network offered to pay the singer $10 million to broadcast one of the concerts, but no air date was ever confirmed.

[99] The lawsuit alleged that the director and singer had entered into an oral agreement to produce and direct a European television special of the tour; according to Hamilton, it was a "pay-or-play" deal, which meant he would get paid whether not Madonna used his complete services.

Instead, a more worldly Madge struggles to become a less sound-bite-reliant, more sincere person";[105] Stephen M. Deusner from Pitchfork panned it and said that, "[Madonna's] life as portrayed in this documentary is cloistered and withdrawn, marked by hours of quiet Kabbalah study but very little self-reflection".