I think it's basically everyone's opinion that watched both, which is why 10 Years Later, 'Avatar' Is the Most Popular Movie No One Remembers https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjw4bv/10-years-later-avatar... which obviously is not completely true, as evidenced by this post, but one thing I have noticed is that whenever anyone mentions the movie Avatar someone always comes in and says I got excited because I thought we were talking about the other one, but whenever anyone mentions the other one nobody gives a damn about the movie.
on edit: I guess 13 years later, but who cares, it's Avatar the movie.
Yeah honestly I only remember Avatar the movie because of the SNL Papyrus skit mentioned in this article lol. Possibly superior to the movie. But who knows, maybe Avatar 2 with its new font will be better...
I mean, I do like the ideas and messages Avatar the movie was going for, but perhaps it was too visual for me. The experience of watching in theater was great/dazzling but nothing really stuck with me.
Are you sure there was a character named Ripley? I just went and looked at a listing of characters https://james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Chara... and they didn't have Ripley, but they did have Dancer #3, so I figured that's a pretty authoritative list.
Maybe you mean Grace Augustine, Sigourney Weaver's character?
on edit: I mean it's a pretty hilarious confirmation of my point if so.
I actually liked the movie, it's just that the characters aren't often addressed by names, so it's hard to remember them. In Aliens, for example, people always refer to each other by names (Vasques, Hudson, Bishop, etc), but in Avatar they don't.
(And i can probably name actors who played most roles, including Giovanni Ribisi)
on edit: I guess 13 years later, but who cares, it's Avatar the movie.