It is honestly fascinating to observe how Avatar: The Way of Water is ploughing relentlessly through the vast expanses of the worldwide box office, now on course to eclipse a whopping target of two billion dollars, all in the space of just about a month since its much-anticipated release. But equally, this unstoppable juggernaut is already slowly evaporating from our consciousness.
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At this point my memory may be conveniently failing me, but I don’t think I ever promised anyone that in the event of Avatar 2 being finally released theatrically, I would ‘do a Herzog’ and eat my own shoe. And even if I did, I am officially pleading amnesia because I don’t think I own a pair of shoes I’d be comfortable enough to cook and consume. There’s not enough thyme in the world to make this experience even remotely acceptable.
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Around this time thirteen years ago, many were asking if the meteoric success of the long-awaited Avatar would herald a new era in cinema or at least if it would reverse the post-recession blues of declining ticket sales, shrinking budgets and an increasingly risk-averse sequel-heavy slate of upcoming releases. After all, it was a true marvel of audio-visual craftsmanship, a spectacle to end all spectacles.
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One of the age-old pub quiz questions from the movie trivia pool is the famous “name a sequel better than the original”.
“Aliens“, shouts Billy.
“T2“, adds Chris.
“I got it, by the way. I got it! The Godfather Part II“, adds Nancy while imitating the smug sense of superiority oozing from Timothy Olyphant’s character of Mickey in Scream 2, from which she just quoted.
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What do you do when you find out you are extremely unlikely to like a movie you are watching now? Do you switch it off? Do you persevere? Do you bear it with clenched fists and a slapped-on grin, murmuring to yourself it would all be over soon and that you must slug it out because turning it off would be tantamount to desertion?
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It goes without saying that John Carpenter’s Halloween was never envisioned to sustain a sequel, let alone an entire franchise. It probably was a bit surprising when the film became iconic and gave birth to one of the most – if not the most – recognizable villains in history of cinema, Michael Myers. Therefore, the question of following up the unexpected success of what became one of the most profitable independent movies of all time was both inevitable and challenging given the strong possibility that John Carpenter wasn’t that interested in exploring this world any longer.
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Flasz On Film 