The first 20 minutes are very, very good. The first take, a 1-2 minutes long shot with no cuts, following Anakin's ship, was quite impressive, even though the battle was kinda confusing, too much things going on at the same time. Suddenly, they get into Grievious ship, the music stop, and some good Star Wars action begins. Elevators, gags that actually worked, a good cameo by Dooku, all to the landing of the ship, the movie looked great. Could it be? Could episode 3 be as good as the OT?
No. Suddenly, the movie comes to a sudden stop. The characters seem lost. Palpatine's decieving Anakin feels almost humorous. The movie feels rushed and boring AT THE SAME TIME! And suddenly, after a very disapointing fight with Grievious, and a very disapointing Mace Windu death, Anakin decides to "surrender" to Palpatine! What?!
Palpatine's voice seems to be changing on every single take... The Jedi's death was a bit surprising to me ("plan 66"? like that ed wood film?), I liked it, the clones betraying them. And then there's the Yoda fight - Palpatine is now looking like an "Animaniacs" villain! Padme's pregnancy seems rushed, was she like, 3 months pregnant? Obi-Wan's fight with Anakin was merely OK, although I enjoyed the final dialogue and seeing Anakin being toasted.
And when Anakin gets his suit, suddenly GL wants to end the film as SOON AS POSSIBLE! vader screaming "nooooo...!" felt like J.E.Jones WORST moment, you could FEEL he didn't care. And then, the final moment... Yoda talks to Obi-Wan about a Jedi who learned to retain his form after death, Qui Gon! So I was expecting Liam Neeson to make a cameo and explain everything. So, they cut to C3PO, and the... what?! Is it over?! NOTHING WAS EXPLAINED TO THE AUDIENCE! So, is that GL final "F*** YOU!" to his audience? His final joke? *sigh*
The twins are born, and Padme suddenly gives up and dies. She "gave up living"? What? This is Star Wars, they can make a cyborg such as Vader and can't keep a woman from dying at labor? And then, the film ends abruptly, with so many questions unanswered, with so much left loose...
The CGI was not that bad, but distracting - what was that Palpatine Matrix jump? The soundtrack was not impresive, with absolutely nothing new or with impact. Jonh Williams didn't care too...
Is it a bad film? No. It is watchable, it is enjoyable, the acting was not that bad (specially by Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman), it was entertaining and yes, better than AOTC. It's a movie I feel that non-SW fans can watch and possibly enjoy. the dialogue was not that painful, and even though it was rushed, you could feel GL tried...
BTW, here are some pics. http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/ricarleite/starwars/english.htm