I watched the whole thing today with my girlfriend. I probably enjoyed it more, since she was a bit put out by some of the alterations to things that had never bothered her to begin with (like getting rid of the Yoda fight), but we both liked it.
The biggest improvement to me was that Anakin no longer comes across as 'creepy stalker guy'. I accepted his interest in Padme--and more importantly, her interest in him--and never felt that it was awkward or uncomfortable the way it is in AotC. Getting rid of his petulance and giving him better dialogue improves the romance immensely. The reinstatement of several deleted scenes strengthens Padme's character and their relationship along with it.
As far the quality of the Anakin dub . . . it works. Sure it could use some improvement of integration into the sound field, and a few lines here and there could be re-done, but honestly, I only found myself thinking about the fact that it was a dub a few times while watching. Mostly, it disappeared into the film and just seemed right, which is also helped by the dialogue improvements.
I liked the dream sequence--it reminded me a lot of Hitchcock's Vertigo.
The other big improvement to the movie came with the music editing. I don't know why they hacked up the original score so much in the finished film, but that problem is completely gone here. I especially liked the appearances of music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which made some formerly dull sequences come alive with tension and excitement. The new title music is cool too; I don't remember what piece that is, but you can hear the Star Wars theme's resemblance to it, and it makes a nice change since we've all heard it so many times. A particularly good transition came in the kiss scene on Naboo--going from the love theme in Episode 3 to another piece (I didn't recognise it, but it's good) was quite smooth due to the commonality of the key signatures. I liked the feel of that scene, too: it resembled a film from the 30's or 40's. Occasionally I found myself paying a bit more attention to the music used than to the film itself, but that's just because I am a music fan and focus a lot on that sort of thing anyway.
I'm not quite sure what C-3PO was trying to say when he first showed up. That seemed strange, but we both laughed out loud when Owen said he couldn't even speak Bocce. :)
The end battle sequence is pretty rough, obviously, but I could definitely see what it was trying to convey. The dubbing of the stormtroopers sounded odd and kind of distracting (as were the shots from Independence Day, though I imagine those are only meant to be temporary placeholders). In general, I felt that the quality of the cutting was good, and improved as it went along. The confrontation with Dooku almost works. Anakin completely disappeared when Yoda showed up, only to suddenly reappear and get chopped, forcing Yoda to save them very quickly. That fast pacing would be perfect if not for the disappearing act just prior, but due to the limitations of the existing shots I'm not sure what can be done about it . . .
The last time I watched AotC I remember thinking that one of the only good things about the movie was the enormous bass presence from the LFE channel, which made the explosions and lightsabers and ship engines extremely powerful. Perhaps even too much so at times, but it made things at least somewhat interesting to listen to. It would be cool to have some of that in a final version, but that's a relatively minor point. On a sound related note, the inclusion of saber and engine effects from the original trilogy helped give it more of a Star Wars feel--these sounds were familiar and right, as opposed to the foreign and strange sounds that fill the prequels in general.
Obviously, the movie is still derived from AotC, so there is only so much that can be done with the story. I still prefer Timothy Zahn's original idea that the Clone Wars were fought by the Republic military against the 'clonemasters' who were trying to take over the galaxy; but obviously it's impossible to change the nature of the story that far. Overall I found this to be an excellent new take on the film, somewhat akin to the way the Richard Donner version of Superman 2 improves drastically on the botched original release. Trooperman, if you ever have the time and energy to finish this, it would be nothing short of fantastic!
Oh yeah, that Jar Jar dub . . . who the hell came up with that craziness?! lol I couldn't help but laugh when I heard it, because I'm always uncomfortable hearing my own voice, and can't judge it objectively. My girlfriend didn't recognise that it was me, I guess because of the faux Britishness. Some have liked it, some haven't . . . I'm quite willing to take another stab at recording it. Pitched down as it was, I didn't even recognise myself in Mas Amadda's voice--I think that one probably worked better than the Jar Jar.
Again, awesome job TM!