I think the first one is a good movie, and much maligned.
Confusing? I really don't know why people say this...but then again perhaps I do...
Problem is, it comes packaged as a typical Cruise, brainless summer blockbuster, and a lot of the audience just expect to sit there and let it wash over them, and not have to think about it.
Effectively, a lot of people simply switch their brains off. And by the time they realise there is actually a plot to follow, it's too late. If you don't get what is going on in that first twenty minutes, then you are going to spend the rest of the movie in confusion.
Plus, did anyone really think Brian De Palma was going to make conventional action movie?
I thought the second was dreadful, the third somewhat better...but the first one still stanRAB as a pretty good movie for me.