Hopefully I'll get around to doing a commentary, where I can explain everythin on a slightly deeper level.
New title and opening crawl
Vertically flipped the first shot of Coruscant, making the camera pan down instead of up.
Horizontally flipped the next shot in order to match the first, with the ship now continously moving from left to right. AotC looked weird here.
Removed the scene with the "awesome acting talents"-guy telling us what we've already seen ("We're making our final approach into Coruscant"). I remember the fact that the decoy lady sounded so much like Portman made things a bit confusing the first time I saw this.
Changed around a bit on the landing scene. It now goes Padme climbs down her ship - R2 intro shot - View of Senator decoy disembarking - Typho saying "We made it" - "Boom!". The surprise is a lot more effective.
Removed the decoy's line "I failed you, senator". She already called her 'mylady' and we see that it's Padme. I moved Padme's "I sholdn't have come back"-line to the last shot of Cordé the Dead Decoy, enabling me to cut Typho's lines that are just supposed to tell us that Padme is Padme. We already figured that out. The fact that we didn't hear the decoy sounding like Padme in the earlier scene also helps here.
I re-instated the cut scene of Padme addressing the Senate here. In case the viewer didn't pay any attention to the earlier scene and thinks Padme really is dead, he/she can catch up here. It does start the film a little slow but I think it's nice to be somewhere we can recognize. Also I like the more adult tone it sets. I'm all for more politics/emotions and less action/stupidity in this edit. I cut the scene with the badly animated Jar Jar and the thing with Mas Amedda's (blue guy next to Palpatine) silly snake tounge. This scene is also good because it shows, essentially, what this movie is about (partially): the collapse of the Republic.
Palpatines Office:
One thing that reoccurs throughout this film is that people often wait for each other to finish their lines before talking back. This feels too theatrical and not very realistic. I fastened the Palpatine's response to Mace, where he interrupts him, and also fastened Mace's response back, making it feel more like a real conversation/argument.
Changed the subs a little bit and switched places on Palpatines replies to his little secretary-on-a-desk. It goes something like "they arrived" - "send them in" - "right away, my lord" - "good". Like the previous edit, this is meant to make it feel more like a real conversation, in real life. This type of edit appears a lot more in this film.
When Padme enters, Yoda originally got off the chair and was walking towards the door. Problem was he never passed his chair (CG characters are not bound by physical laws). I cut that short.
Instead of Padme completely dissing Yoda's welcoming, we now get a shot of her face during Yoda's "warm feelings to my heart", then I cut directly to Mace stating what the Jedi intelligence has to say.
Cut Yoda's "grave danger" line.
Cut Bail Organa's line about stressful times. Padme now answer immediately, just like she knew Palpatine was gonna say just that...
Instead of Mace explaining Obi-Wans recent return from some place called Ansion, where he did something we don't care about at all, he doesn't.
"Thank you, master Windu" is now gone. Portman sounded like a bad actress reading straight out of the script on this one, and she deserves to be put in a brighter light.
In the elevator scene, I cut Anakins recollection of what happened with the Gundarks. Instead he just laughs sort of nervously after Obi-Wans little joke.
Now, when Jar Jar greets the Jedi, his loud shout "OBI" is what makes Padme and Typho turn around and start walking towards them. Because of this I could cut a lot of useless Jar Jar lines.
"Ani, you'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine" is a line, not present in my cut. This was just another way of saying "Hey kids! Remember what happened in Episode I?"
Typhos line about Queen Jamilla is gone. All it says is that Naboo has a new Queen, which we already guessed since Padme is Senator. It's unlogical as well since Obi and Ani probably don't know who this Jamilla is.
In the sofa conversation, I changed the first lines around a bit. It goes "Don't need more security I need answers" - "We're here to protect you not start investigation" - "I wanna know who's trying to kill me" - "We will find out who's trying to kill you, Padme. I promise". This felt more logical and real.
Changed a bit more in that scene to make it feel more real. As Anakin is making an argument for his case, Obi-Wan now interrupts him, with the line about doing what the counsel said. It becomes more of a slap in the face to Anakin.
Cut Jar Jar's "Busting with happiness". It works better without it.
I changed a lot of things with the assasination attempt scene. First of all, I felt that this was just a cheap way of giving R2-D2 some screen time. I like R2 a lot and seeing him fail so miserably in his assignment didn't make me happy. Also, we know that he has built in scanners and all kinds of hi-tech gadgets, and yet he searches the room in which Padme is an open victim to an assasination attempt with a funking flash light!?. Not in my edit he doesn't. It's now all about Anakin being a little too cocky, thinking that he alone can protect Padme. I also switched things around a bit and added a little music from RotJ. You'll see. =)
When Anakin burst into Padme's room and slashes away the poisenous worms, I cut the short clip of them hitting the wall and splitting into two parts. This was just in the way of the clip of Padme awaking with a jerk. It flows better now.
Cut away Padme's servants asking her if she's OK. Also because of the flow.
The Coruscant Chase scene is a LOT shorter now.
It is now Anakin's overconfidence in his abilities that make them lose Zam. As they are descending and that big ship gets in the way causing Anakin to swiftly do an evasive move, this is were I cut to the scene right before Anakin jumps down towards Zam's speeder. Since they we're chasing Zam downwards, it all works out neatly.
Cut the action shots we're Anakin just tries to stay on top of Zam's speeder. Now, he lands, whips out his saber and stabs it through the roof of the speeder, which starts the fire in the cockpit, making the ship wobble and causing Anakin to lose the grip on his lightsaber (which Obi-Wan picks up just like he always did).
I cut some of the running around scenes once they crash-landed.
Removed Obi-Wans line "This weapon is your life". It sounded weird.
I didn't really like the shot where Ani & Obi are looking around the pub, or whatever it is. Now they just walk in and Obi immediately asks "Can you see him?", just like a real Jedi cop on duty would do.
Removed the talk about Death Sticks. It was a bit silly and ruined the tension completely. We now see the guy starting to speak with Obi-Wan, and that's when we cut to Zam, seeing her chance to attack the Jedi now as Obi is distracted.
"Jedi business, go back to your drinks". What are they, the Coruscant maffia? You shouldn't talk like that if you're the protector of peace and harmony in the galaxy (which Anakin is still trying to be). He now just says "Easy". To who? Obi-Wan perhaps. That's harmonic.
As they are trying to get Zam to speak, Anakin, in AotC, shouted out "Tell us now!!". I never liked that. He's supposed to be a powerful Jedi. Now he just leans over Zam and says more quit and controlled "Who hired you, tell us". He's probably trying his very best to mind trick Zam into telling the truth.
Zam's last words are in a foreign alien language, and thanks to this, I gave her the subtitle saying "South of Rishi Maze... Kamino.". Luckily, if you listen closely it acutally sounds a little like Rishi in the start and they could have their own word for Kamino just like we on Earth have different names for cities of countries depending on wich language you speak. Also, since Anakin was mind tricking all he could, they can be fairly certain that Zam's telling the truth here. What a pleasant shortcut in the storytelling :-D.
This of course means that I could delete the toxic dart subplot all together and even wipe away to the Jedi Counsel scene before Obi-Wan even says the words "Toxic dart". Oh joy.
I think I'm all done with this, but I often find myself going back and tweaking a little. I may have left some of the smaller changes out. Basic idea in this edit is to get a feeling of reality. To remove all the little disturbances and in the end have a deeper and more philosphical film.