Finally saw this and... Yeah, not a fan haha
For context, I was a die hard Matrix fan. My friend and I saw reloaded 5 times in the cinema. I had those soundtracks on repeat. That series coloured my teenage years big time. But this movie not only felt entirely flat to me, I think it cheapened the ending of Revolutions?
For the record, I loved a lot of the ideas of this movie on paper. Story elements, worldbuilding etc. For example, loved the idea of some machines and humans existing peacefully... Yeah, great idea. Even loved the weird meta stuff. I eat all that stuff up. And making a Neo/Trinity romance the heart of the thing? Yes please, my favourite.
But the way it was all executed felt like a hot mess to me? I mean the entire film was tell not show and even then, still confusing? I feel like they took what was actually a pretty small, self contained story (compared to previous films) but still told it in the most convoluted way they possibly could?
Morpheus and Smith were weird and added nothing. There were SO many characters but they never actually let us get to know them, like the storytelling had ADD, it just bopped along without bothering to let you actually experience anything for yourself. I mean, compare the crew in Matrix 1 to this film. You spent time with them, got to know them. In this film, it really just felt like Lana was just giving all her old Sense8 mates a sweet gig.
And the Trinity arc... What a load of nonsense. I mean, you want to try and flip the tables and give Trinity more power and agency? Sure, great idea... Except they gave her almost no scenes? She spent most of the film as another object or goal for Neo, something for him to save.
Trinity really should have been treated as a co-lead and POV character but instead the whole thing just came off as cheap to me.
I lowered my expectations for this one and when everyone said it was weird and meta, I kinda thought I might still dig it because I'll always love something that aims for weird and different, even if it misses. But at the end of the day, it felt like just another one of the forced franchise sequels that the film was trying to make fun of.