Smithers said:

I was actually going to keep their destination as coruscant, the movie starts of with them escaping the blockade, their destination is coruscant because they're bringing the queen there for the election. Throughout the first two acts of the movie you keep hearing about the planned invasion on Naboo so in the third act, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon go to take down Viceroy, then go down to Naboo and battle Maul.

I definitely prefer this to the constant assertions that people are dying and suffering on Naboo somewhere. The threat of an invasion is much more interesting than an invasion that lasts the whole movie and is toothless.