The movies make Shinji more tolerable by not having him be as depressed as he is on the show, but Shinji has a -lot- of problems. He's sexually repressed/confused (
THAT scene from End of Evangelion, his feelings for Kaworu, ect), has a father that basically refuses to acknowledge his existence, and has severe depression. If you have ever had real depression, you would understand that all you want to do is lie in bed all day, regardless of what's actually going on around you. It's something that makes you seem like a shitty person to people who don't understand- you aren't "sick", but you can't function as a human being. And while depression are certainly something worth exploring in art, an anime about giant robots probably isn't the best place to be trying it.
Movie Shinji, who is far more capable of functioning than the TV version, is a better character for telling the kind of story Eva wants to tell- he clearly has problems, you can tell the same story as the show, but he seems far more likable and understandable to the average person
