It sounds like you're confusing misdirection with poor filmmaking and I think that's a pretty big limitation to put on stories of good and evil that deal largely with archetypes and spectacular action sequences. I say misdirection because pretend for a second that Memento and AoU are magic acts on stage. Memento doesn't have a very attractive assistant, maybe you don't really notice her at all. But the magician is doing a crazy routine you've never seen before. Some tricks he's doing in reverse order (whoa!) some tricks he is starting, then he does another trick, then he goes back and finishes the first trick while tying the two tricks together. Impressive!
But then you go to the AoU magic show. And his tricks are kind of the classic pull a rabbit out of a hat, saw a person in too variety. Good tricks, but familiar. But...he has the most smoking hot assistant you've ever seen. The kind of perfect girl you've dreamed about since you were a kid. She's beyond gorgeous, and in a way that you never thought you'd see on stage. You can't take your eyes off her. Then when the show is over your head clears and you walk out with everyone going. Wait, there was magic? There was a rabbit? Someone played music? Huh? Poor magic show!
But then you go back, you get over the girl for a second, and go, "oh, rabbits and hats and people in half, okay, very familiar but this guy is still doing a pretty good job with the rabbits." It didn't mean that the magician failed the first time. The audience was just too overwhelmed to fully keep track. Because that's what I'm seeing. People going back to watch AOU and realizing that the story and characters and even "narrative flow" are actually quite sound.
