I enjoyed the first one so much I wrote a paper comparing it to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It's amazing how much cross over is there. I couldn't find a direct credit but I am willing to speculate that is were the writers got their inspiration for the movie from. Anyway I thought the first one was simply amazing, the second was like an attempt to close the first with a last minute change to make more money, and finally the third seemed like so many other sequels. You know the type; the "How much more money can I milk from the fan base" type of sequel. Mm... I wonder where I put that paper, I know it is saved to a CD somewhere?
