Saw the movie on opening night, and I have to agree that one of the biggest problems was the pacing. I definitely think it’s possible to freeze frames/backgrounds, or loop video to extend certain scenes to give them breathing room, instead of the frenetic rushing from scene to scene that JJ gravitates towards. The movie definitely should have been two movies instead of cramming everything into one. It’ll be interesting to see what deleted scenes are released, or if we get an extended cut.

I’m still unsure whether I like Rey being a Palpatine, or if I would rather her be “a nobody.” There’s strong musical motif evidence to point to her being a Palpatine having been the plan all along, but I do kind of like the idea that anyone can be powerful in the force, though her rejecting her heritage is also a strong message.
If anyone wanted to add/alter scenes of characters to either add exposition or change current dialogue/settings, I definitely think it could be done using DeepFake technology or EbSynth.

I too was frustrated that the opening crawl glossed over what could have been an extremely interesting plot: Palpatine’s message being broadcast. I feel like the journey to discover the source of that, and seeing the galaxy’s confusion and incredulity toward the validity of the message would have been extremely interesting. Maybe the message could have gone out, people would have scoffed at it, then Palps would start blowing up planets with his Sith fleet which would get the galaxy to believe/tremble in fear at the return of the Emperor.

Aside from a complete overhaul of the movie, a couple of other minor things I would love to see changed that would connect the new movies to the larger canon would be for Boolio to be changed to Shriv, and for the wayfinder to just be a Sith holocron.