I thought people might pick up on the "big screen, little screen" issues. This was a film that clearly wasn't made to be a film originally, and instead was meant for TV. I got that feeling too but it didn't really jar me on liking it. I liked it a lot.
The only real issue I had was some of the dialogue... I really liked this overall and I'm shocked how many hated it.
The CG in this isn't CGI... The animation is to have a puppet-like look to it, so it's dumbed down a bit I think. I didn't go into this looking for a Pixar film, and if you did I think you went into it already expecting way too much.
I mean, half of Jabba's goons were identical... Really it wasn't a good idea to go into this hoping you got Toy Story quality. Just wasn't going to happen because that's not what they were going for and we really knew that going into it.
I felt the action was outstanding... They included all the goodies a SW film needs with the warrin', the space battles, the escapes, lightsaber fights, ground combat on a massive scale, etc. They threw in great characters we know and I'm hopeful we'll see Durge & Co. from the established EU then throughout the series.
Really I'm shocked this many fans were upset. To me this was a great break from the other films. I thought there was a distinct "adult" content effort too with the Clone getting his bucket shot off, the one shot through the gut, some pushing of language (nothing worse than the OT or PT, but still it was nice to hear), and a character that I too felt was very gay. Call it a Truman Capote reference or whatever, but I too got the gay vibe from Ziro and I really enjoyed him as a character... He was evil and flamboyant, and just seemed like Jabba's sort of polar opposite.
I'm actually looking forward to watching it again but can't find a good time to go.
Oh, and someone brought up Anakin being owned by a Hutt, and that's great. I'd forgotten about that, and that really covered Anakin's hatred of them. I 100% blanked on that, but now I get why he's so xenophobic towards them and lumps them all together. That's a fantastic point and I dig that even more now.
I thought really this was clearly meant for the small screen first, but as a big screen jaunt out for a day I enjoyed it a lot.
Oh and to Jesse's defense, I think he maybe meant Ebert's reviews as a whole. He does support SW though, but I usually don't agree with him. Hell, a 2 star for AOTC but 3.5 for TPM? Is he on crack?