Finally got around to seeing it yesterday as it was no longer playing at my nearest theatre, so I had to go to the nearest 16 cineplex... and it only had one session on each day so it was probably in its last week.
I guess being out for 2 months is a long time for movies now, with the distributors trying to break opening records and get everyone to see it in the first week. I just thought that a Star Wars movie would be out longer than this.
Now I can read this topic to see what others thought.
I think the movie fits in between Ep 3 and 4 well, leading straight into Ep 4... making me want to go watch it. But it is ultimately a sad movie.... and I guess it should have been obvious while watching it that all these new major characters had to die before the end of the movie, or else, where were they in Eps 4 to 6. That would make it harder to generate too many fans of those characters or sell as many toys.
I would have liked more involvement by pre-existing characters, but understand why it was difficult or impossible.
It was a little too slow for me during much of the first half, but it was the first time we got a good look at how vast and powerful the Empire really was. (We didn't really see any Imperial strongholds or occupied worlds in Eps 4 to 6 other than the two Death Stars and Tatooine).