Great, but with a few minor rants.

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2005)

First off, don't let the title of this post fool you, I loved the movie, I'm going back to see it again sometime today, most likely.
Two minor rants: Palpatine: McDiarmid is GREAT as Palpatine in this movie, there's no disputing that. But whoever did the makeup for his disfiguration... well, they didn't quite live up to that. It doesn't look as real in this round.
The Death Star: Wow, it took them how many more years to get the first DS done after this movie, when the basic frame was already laid out? Compare that to the time it took to get the second one done enough to fire for Return of the Jedi, and it's an eyeblink-worthy.
One thing I found very /very/ interesting about this movie is that it possibly expands the definition of what is considered canon gospel in Star Wars. Not in and of itself, but: The Clone Wars cartoons on Cartoon Network (especically the second run of episodes) is essentially declared to be canon by this movie. I'm almost certain that some people might enjoy this a little bit more once it and Clone Wars Season 2 are out on DVD. The CN series did General Grevious /far/ more justice than the movie did, and in fact ends with the kidnapping of Palpatine, which the movie starts out on. (also why I call it canonized)