The beginning was clunky, and a bit overrated. You'd think the Trade Federation would upgrade their battledroids after seeing just how inept they are at every turn. And I see GL caved to the PC Police and changed the trade fed voices to sound "less ethnic".
****Spoilers ahead****
Again, in the beginning time seemed to drag, and the acting as always seemed to be comprised of the players reading their lines off a teleprompter, like a newsreader. Portman and Christensen were especially bad, and if I were Portman I'd shoot my hair stylist. Awful in the beginning. McGregor was better than he was in the first two. McDermaid: IMO, he deserves at least academy nomination. He really held the film together nicely. Dooku met his fate much too quickly.
The battle between Windu and Palpatine: Well done, if a bit contrived. As usual the idiot good guy has the bad guy where he wants him, then hesitates just long enough to insure that 25 years of havoc would follow.
Gen Grievous: I did not see all of Clone Wars, so I'm not really sure what everyone's problem was with him, and I also don't know why he was coughing and sneezing all the time. On the accusation that he was too easy to defeat: I disagree. He made a good chase of it.
The battles and duels were first rate, of course, although it seems at times that they were "twirling" their blades just to look good, as opposed to any real reason. The battle between Yoda and Palpatine was awesome, but the one between Obi-Wan and Annakin was definitely the highlight of the movie, and is probably the best overall duel in any of the 6 films.
The ending: It was surprisingly well tied together into the events of Episode IV. The awakening of Vader was going pretty good until they made it look like Frankenstein. I was waiting for Palpatine to scream "It's a-liiiiiiiveeee!" and the cliched "NOOOOOOO!!!!" scream.
The binary sunset at the end almost brought me to tears, as I think the original one in ANH is the most powerful scene in the saga.
Overall, I rate it as good as Jedi, not better...definitely worthy of the Star Wars name.