Star Wars Spin-Off: 10 Lessons Gareth Edwards Must Learn From Godzilla

5. The Importance Of Payoff

For all the great suspense and tension building Gareth Edwards achieved in Godzilla, where he stumbled a bit is the payoff. If you genuinely liked his methodology, then more power to you, but the fact that so many people - even those who love the film - mention it as a negative means that there has to be some truth to the criticism. People can't help the way they feel, and if they genuinely feel like the payoff to all that tension isn't satisfying, then there is a disconnect going on between authorial intent and audience response. If there is anything to be learned from these responses, it's that Gareth needs to hone his skills a bit more in this regard. Star Wars fans are going to be less forgiving if he continues teasing in the spin-off, which means he'll need to indulge the audience's thirst more often. Now this doesn't mean he should overindulge the audience and just shove set-piece after set-piece at them Michael Bay style, just that he should consider the payoff in relation to the build up. If the audience is subjected to a 10 minute suspense sequence, then the payoff should be a little more than just one or two money shots. Such a thing is relative to build up, so as long as Gareth keeps this in mind, his ability to satisfy audiences should improve significantly. Speaking of satisfying your audience...