Personally, I hate AOTC. There are many reasons, but I will concentrate on my unhappiness with the effects decisions for the sake of the current discussion. First off, I think the use of the unproven hd camera actually made the effects look worse. The actors did not blend in the with the digital backrounds AT ALL. Every scene with a digital backround looked fake. It looked like you had actors sitting in an empty room and then had the backround penciled in behind them. And again, the HD camera actually enhanced the CGI flaws, instead of hiding them like the more modest WETA effects.
Second, there are just way too many effects. I think Lucas is a dangerous combination of arrogant and lazy. He wanted to wow us with the 3000 digital effects when in fact I found them marginal at best (not to mention how the script got sacrificed because of it). I can understand some CGI (it's Star Wars after all)...creating some CGI aliens, and CGI'ing environments that couldn't be realistically created. I know it's not possible to create a full scale geonosian arena. But CGI'ing the damn floor in the Jedi temple?!?!? CGI'ing Padme's apartment?!?!? I find that the epitome of ridiculous. The movie 'Aliens' cost 18 million to make, and the actual sets and props were awesome. I know there's inflation when it comes to making movies, but even if you multiplied that budget by a factor of 4 because of inflation, that's still well below what it cost to make AOTC. Imagine AOTC with real sets! And actual humans in the Clone costumes! And a story to boot! All while staying within the estimated budget.