Starting to think there's a really fiddly balance in movie-making.
If you're in love with something, it'll show through in your movie and grab viewers; Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Bladerunner, The Matrix, Young Frankenstein (which I think really works because unlike other Brooks tributes, he's legit trying to make his own Frankenstein movie).
This gets fiddly when you make sequels because it means being in love with the first movie, so the energy's different.
It makes sense you'd try to make lightning strike the same way twice and fail (James Cameron, Wachowski sisters).
Clearly a new person can fall in love and make an awesome sequel eg (Aliens) but they too can fail (Last Jedi). I'm not quite sure how you manage to pull off that "I'm in love with [first movie] and pull on [first movie's inspiration b/c it's still awesome stuff]."
What gets me is Sanjuro, Aliens, and Mad Max Fury Road are perfect sequels; they get exactly the feel of the original while telling a related yet very different story. How do you peg that different-enough energy?