The problem wasn't with the smaller scale in principle, if there's a problem with it, it's more in the execution. But as far as that goes, it was well done. At the end of the day, it was about reuniting Neo and Trinity. If you don't like that, fine, but a) their story has always been the core of the films, so this is just a continuation of that, and b) it's unfair to criticize a movie based on its scale in principle or how many sets it had, especially comparing it to its other movies. The Matrix has always trafficking in specific ideas first where what happened in the story stemmed from that, however the scale was. The scale of the trilogy seemed more a means to an end to tell this story of belief and faith and love and hope.
I guess they could have gone with something larger scaled in theory, but after the war with the machines, where would you go? Most importantly, it just felt like a story Lana wanted to tell than out of obligation or any sense of what "The Matrix is."
I can see the nightmare version of this movie made by another filmmaker who would have done the exact things this movie was deconstructing. We would have gotten the war with the machines again, Smith as the villain again, recreating moments of the original with reverence without any self awareness, the obligatory "bullet time" and trying to create new Matrix moments. All the superficial nonsense that drives current legacy sequels. Instead Lana is well aware of what the Matrix is and is less interested in all that and just focused on telling a new story.
That committee executive meeting scene in this movie is essentially the scene I've been talking about for all these years. It's essentially what's we're getting in these legacy sequels.
