Good, but not great, and here is why.

Rating: 8/10 (19 May 1999)

Before seeing the film (opening day) I had heard a great deal from other internet reviews, reviews of reviews, and the like.
To me, the film is very different from the original trilogy, and I begin to suspect why: the first three were very clean in their look and composition -- even if the things shown were dirty and battle-scarred. Here, in SW:TPM, those clean compositions are gone, and with that, to me, a lot of the sense of simplicity and directness that made the originals great is also gone.
Also, in SW:ANH, characters took their lines seriously. Here, it seems actors are sometimes addressing the audience directly.