2. Matrix Sequals - Make the Villain the Merovingian
In the follow-up to the surprise hit the Matrix the Wachowski's Matrix Reloaded continued exploring the world after the machines take over. At times meandering with over-bearing pseudo-philosophically loaded dialogue, but never failing to deliver on the action aspects expected from the first installment. Not nearly as original or mind-bending as the first Reloaded nevertheless succeeded in building up a good set-up for the third film. Until one actually saw the Matrix Revolutions that is, a unholy mess of philosophy, religious overtones and bad scripting. One of the problems is that both the machines and humans had to unite somehow in the end, in this case to fight a common enemy in Agent Smith and his powers of ctrl-c. We've already seen Smith do his duty in the first installment, he was a menacing foe that took Neo everything he had to defeat. Bringing him back for the sequels kills the purpose of the ending to the first film, while just giving us more of the same points from the original. What's more we had an interesting Villain in Reloaded with Lambert Wilson's The Merovingian, a calculating, charismatic and threatening presence. He holds the keys, literally, to the hero's goal and fights tooth and nail to prevent them from getting them. His speech about causality was easily one of the highlights from Reloaded, showing us that he is now mere program at the whim of the machine world. Coming into the third installment one would've expected that Merv would at least be a big part of the finale. Alas he is a glorified cameo in Revolutions, the directors squandering a chance at a dynamic battle between the two strongest characters from the machine and human worlds. There was no need to bring back Smith, have him stay where all deleted programs go. Merv seemingly can corrupt other programs, as evidence with the Oracle, so have him go on rampage threatening to control the Matrix and it's inhabitants. The machines would want the runaway program destroyed and Neo would need to fight him for all the people still trapped in the matrix.