I think this is a solid attempt at a 3 in 1, and I can tell you put a lot of work into this edit. That being said, it didn’t totally work for me. It was sometimes hard to watch because of rough edits (but it is a rough cut). I think it’s just hard to pull off this approach of removing all the legacy characters and completely changing the setup of who Rey and Kylo are. But you’ve done a great job with the idea!
Here’s a bunch of recommendations. Hopefully some of them are helpful.
My biggest advice would be to simplify. Anything that is not necessary to the plot should be removed. Anything that is necessary should have as few changes as possible, to preserve the original flow of the editing. Every change you make removes some believability from the film, because even subtle changes can be detected and all these little things add up.
In general, the scene transitions need more attention. Establishing shots could be used in many places.
35:53 is where you started to lose me. She just randomly finds luke’s saber and then it cuts to her training it a totally different place, then she is reading a book. It’s really hard to tell what is going on here, possibly due to how the scenes transition. Maybe move the training sequence earlier in the film to show she is already a Jedi right off the bat. Or maybe just remove it because it doesn’t seem to fit well anywhere. I think It will be clear she is a Jedi when she practices with her saber on Ach-to.
36:53 is where a lot of heavy exposition is shoved into like a minute. It is really hard to tell what data BB-8 provided. And the pacing makes this exposition really hard to digest. Any establishing shots or shots of random resistance people would be really helpful here to slow down this scene so we can digest the plot that is being setup.
When poe is explaining the intel:
“They’ve been building something for years” … “on a world called exegol”
Maybe insert something like “a planetkiller”.
Rough scene transition at 43:43
Rough scene transition at 45:34
Why would Kylo need a wayfinder to get to exegol? Isn’t that his own base?
Trim down the canto bight scene to focus on finding the codebreaker. Anything else is just filler.
The dream sequence in the cave on Ach-to is hard to understand. Is it real or not? Is she actually finding a wayfinder? why is kylo there? why is dark rey there? why did she go down there? Is this scene necessary?
Especially towards the end there are too many scene changes in the middle of a scene. I think there is too many transitions in between existing scenes (For example 1:36:00)
It is hard to tell where BB-8 is before he destroys the shield generator. He should blow it up right after they are captured so we don’t forget that he didn’t get captured along with them.
Rey killing kylo is pretty rough and distracting, losing the emotional weight because of the weird edits. Maybe give him a good reason to drop his saber so the original edit can be used? Or just improve it some more. Also, Rey crying after she stabs Kylo should immediately follow that moment so it doesn’t break the emotional flow of the scene.
In the second half of the movie it’s hard to understand where things are happening. We are on a ship, a planet and an ocean at the same time. I get that it’s supposed to all be the same planet but it’s hard to believe. Anything that can be done to include more establishing shots, or connect the locations would be helpful.
I would add some dialog before the lightsaber duel because it’s feels strange to have them just jump into fighting.
Less cutting between scenes would improve the flow. The more time we can spend in one location the more invested we can become in that part of the story. For example there are like 5 times where we cut away from Kylo and Rey’s lightsaber duel and in the original film it’s all one scene, so it really isn’t meant to be broken up. This gives it a choppy feeling.
Definitely lots of cool ideas and edits. Very bold approach. The plot could use some simplification to make it easier to follow what is going on. And the scene transitions need work to make the overall film easier to watch. Best of luck!