Having been invited by my friend Craig (who I have to nudge into his 2nd blog post, apparently ;-)), I went to see Star Wars 3 at a midnight showing. It was a fun time, hanging out with Craig and his sister Valerie who’s in our home group, cracking jokes, waiting in vain to see adults dressed like Darth Vader walking through the line.
My quick reaction: we had a good time, it’s an okay movie, great effects, fun to see Anakin turn into the pure evil that is Darth. I had lots of fun making fun of the campy dialogue. But in the end, would I recommend it to somebody who hadn’t seen the other movies? Not really. I mean, it fit well into the overall story, and answered some questions well. It was a good movie for Star Wars fans, for people who had already invested in the other five (or even the most recent two) movies. Is it an Oscar candidate? Uhhh, not by a long shot.. But it’ll do well financially, Lucas can go riding off into the sunset and be hailed as a master filmmaker, and the whole thing is generally a success…
So, here’s a pretty horrifying thought: Are there ways in which the attractional church like Star Wars 3? Have we built something that people who are already into the church would like – not because it’s fantastic/mindblowing/transformative, but because it’s just sort of expected that, given their previous investment, they need to continue commiting themselves to to see how it all works out in the end?
God forbid. But how close are we?
pat loughery 
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