9. Agents The Matrix Reloaded
When the Agents are first introduced in the Matrix, we're told in Laurence Fishburne's silky-smooth tones, no less that nobody who stands their ground and fights one is ever going to win. They can punch through concrete and avoid entire magazines of bullets, so you know they mean business. Understandably, when faced with one, your best bet is to simply run away. That's why it's so dramatic when Neo takes on Smith come film climax nobody does that, so the stakes are well and truly raised. Yet come the sequel, the Agents lost the most integral part of villainy their scariness. Granted, they were supposed to take a back seat to the now-unplugged Agent Smith/Smiths, but still, they were the guardians of the Matrix and as Neo notes in the introduction, they've been upgraded into more efficient killing machines. Naturally, that doesn't make them a match for Neo, but when faced with the lesser good guys, they should be able to whup the holy hell out of them. Yet apparently, nobody got the memo from the first film, and both Trinity and Morpheus take on Agents in the sequel. Granted, it doesn't exactly end well for Trinity, but in Morpheus's case, it's all a bit weird. In the first film, the Nebuchadnezzar's captain is easily whupped by Smith in a dirty bathroom brawl, but come sequel time, he acquits himself well against an upgraded (read: more proficient than Smith) Agent and then more than holds his own against a corridor stuffed with Smiths come the film finale. The fact he does so well really does the agents down, and that's a shame.