I find your lack of fandom disturbing...

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2005)

My score of 7 is a bit misleading. When I first saw the movie the day of its release, I would have rated it a 9, I liked it that much at first glance. Some parts were tedious, but in general I got a kick out of the movie. This is because I made a deliberate effort going in to check my brain at the door.
The previous two prequels had prepared me to expect very little from this movie. Originally I wasn't even planning to see it the first two weeks it came out, but then I got sucked in by that really well-edited six-movie trailer, and found myself intrigued and wanting closure.
At this point, having seen it a second time, the only reason it scored as highly as 7 is because 1.) I did enjoy it the first time around, and 2.) It at least tried to recapture the feel of the original Star Wars saga, even if it did fall short.
During the second viewing (per the request of my wife and some of her work friends), I discovered that once you know what all is in the movie, a great deal of it becomes tiresome. For me, at least, it doesn't hold up to repeat viewings, which I consider to be a detriment, particularly where DVD sales are concerned. (Not that I give a bantha's butt how Lucas' DVD sales go. I'm sure he'll do rather well.)
Having a foreknowledge of the movie's events allows one to pay attention to the plot rather than the dizzying visuals, which never let up. I found myself wondering a lot of things, including but not limited to the following:

If General Grievous "breathes" (and coughs, and wheezes), and if he has internal organs vulnerable to the elements, how could he cavort about in the vacuum of space? (Was he using the "30 second rule" from H2G2?)

Was hyperspace travel that much more advanced back then, that people could just hop in their space vehicles and BAMF! They're at another star system within a few minutes? Or was Anakin sulking to himself for that long?

Did Obi-Wan simply become a pathological liar later in life? After all, he claims to have never owned a droid (which he clearly did), he says he hadn't gone by Obi-Wan since before Luke was born (unless they cut the dramatic "name-change" scene immediately prior to the childbirth scene), and he says that Luke's father wanted him to have his lightsaber, even though his father was too busy screaming in pain to actually make such a request.

Since the Vader suit was readily available after Anakin's near-death experience, couldn't there have been other people running around with a similar suit? And wouldn't they have also sounded like James Earl Jones, since that's apparently one of the suit's features?

Still, this movie was far better than Episodes I & II, though its similarities to II make it less an improvement than its predecessor seemed to be at the time. And some of the best scenes in the movie, I later found out were designed and/or contributed to by Steven Spielberg, which was perhaps one of the best decisions Lucas made for the prequels. If only the dialog coach had yielded similar results. ("Good relations have I with the Wookies." Both viewings, that line made audience members chuckle, and I don't think it was meant to.)
I don't feel that this movie was as awful as some have suggested, but neither does it make me look forward to the "artistic" endeavors Lucas keeps forewarning us about.
If I weren't such a semi-loyal fan of the whole Star Wars universe, I likely would have rated this much, much lower.
"Failed, I have. Into exile, I must go." - Lucas