Now I feel free to buy just the first one, as I have no real interest in seeing the latter two again

I agree. I've already bought the first one on DVD, and I will probably never buy the second and third episode.
I liked the third episde even less than the second one. It annoyed me that a lot of the stuff seemed stolen from Star Wars (Neo doesn't call is powers "the force", but uses them in the same way - even the hand gestures are similar!). I also thought that the final fight resembled the final fight in Star Trek:Voyager somewhat.
Conclusion : LOVED the first movie, but it was downhill from there. IMHO, they shouldn't have bothered with the second and third movie because they are not worthy sequals to the first one.