[knife_fight]

To expand on the music analogy, most bands' first album is the best. The way that is explained is because the band has had a near-infinite amount of time to write and perfect the songs that are on the first album. The first album is the culmination of, many times, years of hard work and practice and editing of ideas. It is the best 13 or 14 songs out of the, probably, 50 or so that the band has written. Then when that album sells a few copies, the label starts putting pressure on you to release a new album while you're still hot. This is when bands call up their songs that didn't make it onto the first record and also sling out new songs in about 1/10th of the time they took to finesse the first songs. This process is repeated for the 3rd and subsequent albums. While this isn't the rule for music, it's the same for movies. Writers and directors have had an infinite amount of time to come up with the ideas and scenes and dialogue for the first movie. They have obsessed over every little minute word and movement, making sure that everything is perfect and exactly the way they want it to be. Then when that first film is successful, the studio and distributor start harping about a sequel, and if you don't do it, they'll find someone who will (being as you signed your life's work over to them in your fervor to see it finally done). So the director and writers rehash the things that worked in the first one, add a little bit of difference, and bam! there's your sequel.