diff --git a/src/app.js b/src/app.js
index 9b64cb6d..1d804806 100755
--- a/src/app.js
+++ b/src/app.js
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ async function init() {
 		const movieUrls = (argv.movie || []).concat(moviesFromFile || []);
 
 		const sceneMovies = deepScenes && argv.sceneMovies ? deepScenes.filter((scene) => scene.movie).map((scene) => ({ ...scene.movie, entity: scene.entity })) : [];
-		const deepMovies = argv.sceneMovies || argv.movie || movieUrls ? await fetchMovies([...movieUrls, ...(sceneMovies || []), ...[]]) : sceneMovies;
+		const deepMovies = movieUrls.length > 0 || sceneMovies.length > 0 ? await fetchMovies([...movieUrls, ...sceneMovies]) : sceneMovies;
 
 		const movieScenes = argv.movieScenes ? deepMovies.map((movie) => movie.scenes?.map((scene) => ({ ...scene, movie, entity: movie.entity }))).flat().filter(Boolean) : [];
 		const deepMovieScenes = argv.deep ? await fetchScenes(movieScenes) : movieScenes;
@@ -255,8 +255,14 @@ async function init() {
 
 			await associateMovieScenes(storedMovies, allScenes);
 
-			await updateSceneSearch(allScenes.map((scene) => scene.id));
-			await updateMovieSearch(storedMovies.map((movie) => movie.id));
+			// refreshing the materialized views is slow, skip when nothing was stored (e.g. --request)
+			if (allScenes.length > 0) {
+				await updateSceneSearch(allScenes.map((scene) => scene.id));
+			}
+
+			if (storedMovies.length > 0) {
+				await updateMovieSearch(storedMovies.map((movie) => movie.id));
+			}
 		}
 
 		logger.info(`Completed in ${Object.entries(intervalToDuration({ start: startTime, end: Date.now() }))