I can't believe people worry about such things.

yet I fear 12 planets may be excesive for a 2 hour movie.

The number is meaningless. Some scenes will be very brief.

The number of planets/sets will determine in some way the pace of the film.

No it won't.

There will still be three very definitive acts, and the planets are related to the structure, but most of those planets will be in short scenes I assume.

ANH:
Act 1 ends w leaving Tatooine
Act 2 ends w leavin Death star

ESB
Act 1 ends w leavin Hoth
Act 2 ends w leavin Dagobah

ROTJ
Act 1 ends w leavin for Endor
Act 2 ends w Luke leavin for Death Star

TPM
Act 1 ends w leavin Naboo
Act 2 ends w leavin Coruscant

AOTC
Act 1 ends leaves w (padme and anakin) leavin Coruscant
Act 2 ends when padme and anakin leave Tatooine for Geonosis

Hmm, I'm too fuzzy on the EIII story at this point to do the same for ROTS, but I'm sure others on this board can figure it out.

Think of it this way:

ROTJ:

Seven planets:

Tatooine
Dagobah
Endor
Death Star II
Coruscant
Bespin
Naboo

Only four of these had major scenes, and the rest were at the end.

ROTS:

Twelve planets:

Coruscant
Utapau
Kashyyyk
Mustafar
Polis Massa
Saleucami
Mygeeto
Felucia
Cato Neimodia (if they haven´t changed the name on this)
Alderaan
Tatooine
Naboo

Only five of these are major locations, all the others are in a montage or at the very end.

Don´t see the problem.

I thought it was a small mooon.

It is the size of a moon, is orb-shaped and has room for millions of troops/citizens. It is as planet-like as can be.

First act ends when Obi-Wan leaves for Utapau.
Second act ends when Obi-Wan leaves for Mustafar.

They're aiming for 2hrs 15min
Currently it's 2hrs 25min
Hope they cut the right stuff

I think they are aiming to get the point across as quick as possible. All those crazy cats a LFL are big fans of editing. I’m hoping they get the pacing right. All the Star Wars films have awkward pacing. I don’t really expect this one to be any different. I just hope they cut stuff that overly explains the situations. They can’t do the kind of length that a Lord of the Rings film brings in because these films have a structure. Attack of the Clones was pretty damn long, but my ass did feel molded to the seat like it did after the Lord of the Rings films.

It seems in terms of structure, it’s going to be the same as Return of the Jedi. With the space battle being the opening chuck of the movie like the Jabba sequence. Then the story’s real conclusion gets started. If that’s the case, this film probably faces all the editing challenges Return of the Jedi did. That’s what I surmise by just contrasting the structure of the film to the previous films. Then again, that lightsaber duel that supposedly is standing alone kind of ruins that idea.

The more planets the better, IMO. More of everything dammit! This is the last chance to see a new SW planet on the big screen (unless you want to count an impending TV series as "the big screen").

I think it's more like 14 general locations really. 15 if you count the space location of the Death Star being constructed.

Coruscant
Tatooine
Naboo
Dagobah
Alderaan
Kashyyyk
Utapau
Mustafar
Felucia
Saleucami
Mygeeto
Cato Neimoidia
Polis Massa
The Invisible Hand
The Death Star

AOTC is the only movie where editing concerns me, more specifically, the cuts between Naboo, Kamino, Tatooine, and Geonosis. It feels that in order to get the longer establishing shots, the resolution of each scene is cut short. The rain duel cut to the first Tatooine shots is probably the worst, because the film rushes to a slower pace.

The cuts between Kashyyyk, Utapau, and Coruscant could be problematic in that same way. But I'm more concerned that the political scenes are going to be smashed between action sequences, making all the Senate banter seem all the more worthless.

^^^^ Very good call.

The editing of Episode II was not quite as good as I had hoped. The problem is, Lucas and McCallum [more McCallum I sense] are soooo damn obessed w/ chopping off every single - what they believe is - unnecessary scene/shot/instant.

For instant, when Lucas defends removing the Padme family scenes, he says the important character tidbits already established elsewhere in the film. WRONG. So, so wrong. As much as I love George, he's really gotta be more objective about his films when he watches them. The things in the Padme family scenes are englightening and strengtehn the story. And he might think they are elsewhere, but they are extremely, extremely subtle, and the audience has no way of assuming what Lucas intends. You need repetition in characterization, otherwise the audience will not get the director's intention.

That being said, the film works w/o those scenes. I do think it would be stronger with them.