When the movie Star Wars premiered in 1977, it was both surprising and a revolution in its special effects.
"surprising" = present participle -- being used as an adjective to modify "it"
"a revolution in its special effects" = a noun and a prepositional phrase modifying the noun -- being used as an appositive to the pronoun "it"
How will you make them parallel?
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/parallelism.htm