I've been watching the magfan cut wiht the sound off and see how much there is to trim pace wise from the speeder chase and the long ass walk around the cantina. Even the speeder crash/Anakin landing and running needs major work to really come off. It should go WHAM! speeder crashes; SMASH Anakin lands. Zam gets out and runs. Anakin is already up and running after her... Not easy to pull off with the footage there, but dammit if that isn't how it was supposed to happen. Anakin needs to come off as capable and confident.
Which brings me to my point: I've always loathed the Padme bedroom scene where she whines about not wanting to leave and he whines about Obi Wan not recognizing how awesome he is. But now I am thinking twice -- if it can be cut down it will be good. My recommendation is to keep the hand-off of power to Jar Jar; then have Anakin assure her this will be quick since Obi Wan's on the case, have her say "I haven't worked for a year to dash off into hiding" and then he says "Sometimes we have to sacrifice" so she's shocked and says "Hey, you've grown up." She looks at him and WIPE!---
Out. That's nice. He impressed her and that's good. It's romantic, it's growth and it moves the story.
Please don't let the scene go any further than that, though, please. It undercuts the "getting to know you" beats that occur on the trip. If he's already leering at her and she's already complaining, then it's just repetitive to do it again later. Get them on that transport and move the story along.
Thanks for listening. Done for now.