I’ve thought about it quite a bit and I think I’m going to move the Falcon’s mission to after Rey’s intro, training, and pep talk with Leia (“Never underestimate a droid”). I like how focused things get once we finally see Rey in the film so I’d hate to break up the Ajan Kloss scenes, but I think the very beginning is where the fast pacing hurts the most, and the lightspeed skipping scene is the prime culprit.

This way, you start the film with Kylo’s journey, Palpatine mentions Rey, we cut to Rey and see her train, see Kylo connect with her, see her have a quiet moment with Leia, then we finally get to the Falcon, and right after we see the Falcon return to the Resistance base. Besides this being a more streamlined sequence of events (that I believe was the original sequencing anyway), this will also help pacing because you won’t get one crazy planet hopping scene (Kylo going to Exegol) followed by another (the lightspeed skipping). I’m hoping between that, reediting Kylo’s interruption to Rey’s training, and slightly extending the lightspeed skipping scene, I can make the first act feel significantly less hyperactive. I’m still weighing in my head the concept of cutting out Mustafar or not. I’m not confident whether if it’d help or hurt the pace honestly, so I’d be curious to see it in action.