A friend of mine was able to go to a Charity event last night for the screening. He is a fan who was very disappointed with the first 2 movies. We did not have alot of time to talk but this is what he said.
Better than New Hope and Jedi. Could be argued as good as Empire he said. Very dark and as someone who has kids at 8 and 9 years old he will hold off from showing them this film. Very violent for a PG13 film. As most know the violence is from the purging of the Jedi (young and old), Dooku and Anakins fate.
Tied all films together perfectly. Will make you understand why the tone of the first 2 films were as they were. Leads into New Hope perfectly. No questions were left unanswered. It is the longest of the 6 films. I thought he said it ran 2.5 hours. I asked if there were any surprises and he said a few (specifically Qui-Gon), although I think we know most of them.
The bad. Palpatine. He said his acting was horrible and got worse as the film went on. This was the only negative thing he said. Also, the makeup on Palpatine just did not have the same feel as ROTJ and the appearance almost looks like a different person.
He said the screening was mostly the local press. The people he talked to were pleasantly surprised and thought the movie was like night and day to the first two.