If there’s a tradeoff between an opening to AOTC which feels horribly stilted and one that has some visual problems due to de-aging, I’ll take the visual issues any day.
Anyway, since people are suggesting their ideal opening to AOTC here are my two cents:
Landing on Coruscant
Deleted scene of Padme and the Senate
Palpatine’s office (full scene)
Establishing shot of Jedi Temple (using musical sting from Elevator scene) followed by Rescored Training Scene
Padme’s Apartment (Delete elevator scene)I think that the training scene covers all the introductory vibes we get in the elevator scene, so it should go.
This opening reveals an aspect of the film that didn’t occur to me until today, and that is the reason Palpatine wanted the Jedi assigned to Padme. In the deleted Senate scene, Padme is railing against the Army of the Republic, saying that security is antithetical to liberty. Palpatine recognizes that she could derail his plans, and must find a way to convince her that this security measure is required. Then in the office scene he impresses on her the severity of the situation and convinces her to take on extra security. It’s a direct psychological attack on her ideals.
Placing the martial training scene directly after this office scene drives this point home in a way that the original film does not. The Jedi are soldiers, regardless of what Windu says, and these soldiers have just been placed in the service of a person who detests military solutions.
This is really good! It also helps to disregard the changes in Hayden’s and Ewan’s age from one scene to another.