Supporting Cast
The Matrix is lucky enough to have one of the most iconic and entertaining villains of mainstream cinema from the last fifteen years, in Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith, a program from The Matrix who hates humanity and wants to eradicate Neo once and for all. Weaving's deliciously demented performance adds a lot to the film - and the sequels, too - making a potentially one-dimensional G-man-type character actually a real hoot to watch. The supporting protagonists, meanwhile, are also extremely iconic; there's the leather-bound femme fatale Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and the aforementioned Morpheus. Even the smaller parts, from Cypher (Joe Pantoliano), to Mouse, the Oracle, and the various other characters in Zion, are memorable and characters we care for. Inception also has an array of memorable supporting characters, and certainly a more talented cast than The Matrix. Though the film doesn't as such have a clear-cut villain, it's Marion Cotillard's Mal who would best be characterised as such, stalking through the film like a horror character, threatening to ruin Cobb's operation. Then there's Cobb's team, consisting of a variety of slick and humourous characters, such as Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and Eames (Tom Hardy), as well as Ariadne (Page) who serves as the story's through-point, and the characters sitting on the periphery like Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), Saito (Watanabe) and Professor Miles (Michael Caine). Again, though, it's the iconic stature of The Matrix's supporting characters that allow it to win this one; they befit the pulpy material so well and are without doubt a lot more memorable and enjoyable to watch than the (still engrossing) characters in Nolan's film.
WINNER: The Matrix