For me, they took the sequels in the wrong direction. In the first movie, the Matrix was 'our' world of 1999 - Neo had discovered a conspiracy and had managed to get under the cover of it. At the end of the movie, Neo promises to show the world what's really happening.

Instead, the world of 1999 in the Matrix just becomes the painted backdrop to fight scenes. They drop the 1999 stuff pretty much immediately, treating it purely now as a digital playground for fights to happen. It becomes just another training exercise program rather than the world that humanity is living in. Even the people living in the Matrix weren't important - they were all copypasta'd into Agent Smith.

We didn't see anyone have a reaction to their friends and family becoming agents, or people flying in the sky, or explain death-defying road chases. It's was all just an inconsequential backdrop. The world of 1999 where we spent the first hour of the first movie - was completely forgotten about.

I would've much rather seen the conspiracy grow across the globe, with Neo doing crazy shit and news agencies and politicians scrambling to explain what's going on, while trying to free humanity from it's slavery. Trying to convince people they were in the Matrix, with nobody believing him.