I think the movies are a lot more focused on just on the main characters, which is a bit of a shame because one of the great things about the original show was

I think the movies are a lot more focused on just on the main characters, which is a bit of a shame because one of the great things about the original show was that in the later episodes it becomes increasingly more apparent that most of the adults have serious issues too. They're just able to hide it better than Shinji, Rei, and Asuka. I can kind of understand though not wanting to just repeat the exact same content, just with a higher budget.