Five Reasons Why the Avatar Sequels Might Not Work

Plenty of people aren’t interested in hearing anything that amounts to a negative thought concerning the Avatar movies, especially since the first one was so insanely great that people are still talking about it to this day. But it does feel that James Cameron is being ambitious when it comes to introducing the idea for multiple sequels. Yes, Pandora definitely deserves to be explored and the indigenous people and local wildlife need to be fleshed out as much as possible. But one has to wonder at what point it’s going to feel like too much, meaning that people will begin to lose interest and the box office numbers are going to drop. Those that want to deny that such a thing is possible might not fully understand the idea of how sequels work, or how Avatar might not be the same talk of the town as it used to be when it first came out. The box office numbers that this movie has generated are impressive since it did take the title back from Avengers: Endgame, but assuming that the sequels are going to do the same is ambitious.  Here are a few reasons why the sequels might not work as well as the original movie. 

5. It’s tough to surpass the first movie in a series. 

This has been proven over and over again throughout the years since the first movie often needs to be an absolute bomb or a staging piece for the sequel to come, as otherwise, the sequels will often feel like something that can be left behind without threatening the integrity of the story. A good sequel will continue to build on the story and help it continue to build one foothold after another to keep things moving. Sadly, too many sequels don’t end up doing this as they either veer wildly from the main story or end up becoming little more than an echo of the original movie, without enough personality of their own to be worth the effort. 

4. Sequels typically fail due to raised expectations. 

There are quite a few people who would argue with this point, but there are also a lot of people that would need to be reminded that sequels often don’t meet the expectations that are set upon them. The reality is that a sequel is a story that someone deemed was necessary since there might have been more to tell as someone saw it, or there might have been a missing element to the first movie that required greater depth and explanation. But it’s kind of rare for a sequel to meet the kind of expectations that people lay on them, and yet it’s typical for people to let this go to enjoy something that has a deeper meaning in their eyes. 

3. The assumption that nothing can beat out Avatar is kind of ambitious.

Whether or not this is a belief of many people, the fact is that some would likely say that because Avatar is the most successful movie of all time, it might never be beaten. The fact is that it’s already been beaten by Spider-Man: No Way Home, which shows that it can be beaten and that it can play second fiddle to another movie. Thinking that sequels are going to perform just as well as the original movie and push every other movie to the bottom of the list is admitting that one thinks that these movies can’t be beaten, which is a seriously ridiculous line of thought. But hey, people can think what they want. 

2. James Cameron is not infallible. 

Every director has their flaws, whether the fans want to admit this or not. Cameron has made movies that have plenty of glaring plot holes and mistakes that have been glossed over by one element or another that has wowed people and made them nearly forget about the mistakes that might have occurred. But thinking that Cameron isn’t capable of making a glaring error in one or more of his movies is what too many fans tend to do because they believe in him so much. That’s all well and good, but denying reality to keep up the fantasy is a weakness of those that don’t want to admit when something could have been done better. 

1. Unless the sequel focuses on an entirely different story, it is still roughly the same story taken in a different direction. 

If there’s one gripe with the original movie, and there are many that can be highlighted, it’s that Jake’s story might need to greatly expand and perhaps push him to the side slightly or show him as yet another player on a grand stage. The characters in the first movie were great, but it feels as though it’s time for Jake to take his spot as another character in the story, an important one to be certain and to allow others to step forward and be fleshed out.  There’s nothing to say that the Avatar sequels won’t be enjoyable, but thinking that they’ll be just as good as the first movie doesn’t feel accurate.