My view.

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2005)

Well I thought it was great. By far the best of the new SW films. And one of the better SW films in all too (better than "Jedi" anyway). Thing is, you have to remember that this is part of a saga and not a stand alone film. I thought Matrix:Reloaded was crap until I saw all 3 as one. Now I think it's great.
It ties in with Ep IV a treat. There is still a 19 year gap between III and IV but pretty much everything is still covered. What happens to Luke and Liea. Why Obi and Yoda become recluse, what happens to the remaining Jedi, etc.
*MAY CONTAIN Spoilers*
However, it does contain the cheesiest moment in film history. Not just in a SW film, but film history. I won't really be spoiling anything here. But you know in a film when someone looses a person close to them and they do that "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" scream, complete with raised and shaking hands? Well imagine the great Darth Vader (in full costume and voice ) doing that.................cheesier than a 4 cheese pizza with extra cheese and stuffed cheese crust with a side of cheese garlic bread. Other than that, I thought it was a great film.
Ending rushed? I don't think so, cos it really is not the end is it? You get a damn fine sabre fight between Yoda and the Emporer inter cut with a kick ass sabre fight between Obi and Anakin/Darth(as he is known then). Some of the greatest SW action ever caught on film. Could not think of a better ending or wished for one either.
I also like the way all the fashions, ships, stormtroopers, etc all start to look like they do in the original trilogy. You start to see the X-wings and Ties. The Imperial destroyers start to look like they should. Even the interiors of the ships look like they do in the original films. It's little details like that that make this tie in with Ep IV so damn well. They even have a guy that looks like a young Peter Cushing at Darth's side.....nice touch.
But looking back, the one thing missing from all the new SW films was space battles.
I'm not a fan of CGI or green/blue screen filming. But how else could you replicate the scenes in the SW films as well without it? The reason George went back and "finished" the original trilogy was cos technology finally caught up with his ideas. But just cos a film does use CGI or green/blue screen is not a good enough reason to say it's crap is it? Yes there is overkill on CGI, etc......but it's still a good film and I think it's a better film for it too.
Overall, I thought EP III was great, just what I was expecting. The perfect start (not end) to the original trilogy.