Agreed, Keanu was a bit less "known" at that point, so his performance was perhaps more "believable" as a hacker & loner. I can almost picture Smith (as Neo) throwing up a hand & being like "Oracle, long time no see" or something. I like Smith, but his energy is quite different as an actor & doesn't quite meld into the Bladerunner/GITS/Akira/Neuromancer vibes that the original story was attempting to channel.

While I have nothing but good memories of Smith in films like I,Robot and other ventures that he has acted in, his pen hasn't isn't one that has subtly at its core. Even in super-serious roles you see what you get & you have certain expectations as to what you'll get. That's not a dig btw, it's just that we knew him quite well at that point & him playing Neo would've been hard to sell. Could he have done it well? Perhaps. But it's possible his "star power" would've cheapened the subtleness of the film & landed it in the pile of "good story, poor execution" movies in the $5 Walmart bin.

I'd take it one step further, as the "future war" is always shot either during the day (i.e. around noon) with a huge amount of action taking place at that point or else everyone is SUPER clean & looking like they're in a war for survival, but there's dry cleaning and far too much time for dialogue. Seriously, the part that made the future war scary was NOT knowing all that much & the dread of what might happen.Ifwe as the audience are somewhat unaware of the "bad guy's" location until it's almost on the hero, it ups the ante and would definitely give the T1 vibe back to the series. Same with the photography & shooting, they NEED to stop washing the film out in digital saturation & allow the lasers, plasma bolts & fires do some of lighting for various parts/scenes as it builds the dread and you can do a lot with the dark. Have an infiltrator sneak up on a side character as they're at one fire & snap his neck, but the main character created a diversion & didn't say it outright to the audience. You get a jump scare moment AND a quick moment to swerve the plot......

You know what, I'd dare say that Marvel itself is falling victim to the very real prejudices & scape-goating that the X-Men's villains often use when referring to mutants. Instead of allowing the characters to go through things as actual, flawed human beings, they've often been shown in a far more villainous light than any other group of "super heroes" out there in Marvels collection of series.

Unless I'm missing the mark, but for all their talk of "including" people & having "representation" in their stories & characters, they've gone pretty heavy handed in portraying their "legacy" characters as just another part of the "evil system" that initially created them.

Either way, the whole "let's make X "leader" the "bad guy" only works IF their reasons make sense, and Marvel's reactionary changes to the X-Men, post-Krakoan era...

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. While our current generations are fond of rooting for those who were originally villains, that doesn't mean we like seeing all of our former "heroes" fall to the "bad" side of morality.

Some measure of moral complexity doesn't mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but of course modern "writers" seem loathe to write nuanced & complex characters unless it's one that they personally "like" or have created...

I've never been a huge fan of Damien & his character arc, but considering that he's never known any type of stability (i.e. he's NEVER had a life w/o any sort of violence or danger) well, it makes sense that he'd be questioning the "good" that is done by their superheroics. Sure,you saved the world & took out the BBEG, but what do you wanna do afterwards? Go beat up a few street thugs? Fight the NEXT BBEG who's already decided "your" city is ripe for destruction?

Yeah, it makes sense for Damien to rebel against his "mantle" as a Robin. He's not the first to step into that role & he won't be the last. He does deserve a character arc that sees him become something other than the genetic legacy of Batman and the Al'Ghul family. Him finding a place in the world to be himself & develop as a person makes sense, as he's at the stage where booy starts to become a "man" & questioning the path one is on is entirely in keeping with that.

I just hope they avoid glossing over it in order to "finish" the story...