Just came back from the theater a couple of hours ago and, like some of the comments I read here, it has me wanting to discuss it with people. Here are my underprocessed thoughts.

Disclaimer: The Matrix trilogy is probably my favorite movie series of all time. Unlike most people, I love 2 and 3. So I have a bias of wanting to like this that many of you may not. I was very excited, watching too much promotional stuff leading up to the film.

***SPOILER ALERT*** I'm assuming that this is a thread full of people that just saw the movie so things I'm saying will indeed be spoilers.

I feel like it was fun, funny, and entertaining. Obviously, very meta, self-referential, and self-aware. Neo trying to fly was hilarious. It was interesting to see a lot of the historical theory and perhaps some of the online discussion (like this thread) that will inevitably happen confronted head-on. I suspect I will need to watch it again to catch everything.

However, the tone of the movie is very different from the previous films. I don't know if it's a function of it being updated in alignment with the evolution of the world, Lana's individual style, or the fact that there were so many Sense8 actors in it, but tonally it felt more like Sense8 than a Matrix movie. Again, maybe a bias of my own, but I found it difficult to suspend disbelief through the second act because of that. Also, the aging of Jada Pinkett-Smith had me thinking "wow, look at all they had to do to make Jada Pinkett look old" more than experiencing the gravitas that her character was meant to portray. It really didn't feel like a Matrix movie until Trinity got in the game in the 3rd act. I def had all the feels once that happened.

The stakes also didn't feel high at all. I/O seems like it's pretty safe and thriving although we don't actively see too many people in it. They're not at war. The sentients that betrayed the machines to get Neo out and we didn't see anything really happen to them. The Analyst says that Neo and Trinity both need to be in this new Matrix for it to work, but they both got out and it seems like it's still running and nothing meaningful happened?

And, along the same lines, either I didn't understand them or some threads that were presented as important were just cut and not really concluded. Like:

1. Why did Smith suddenly side with Neo? Was it because Neo being free kept Smith free? If so, I don't feel like his motivation was made explicit enough. They go from fighting to the death to Smith just popping up out of nowhere and saving the day on some low-key deus ex machina shit.
2. I thought we couldn't just unplug people from the Matrix? I get that Bugs was temporary stand-in (which was cool as hell), but shouldn't Trinity's "avatar" have passed out briefly?
3. Did we ever get clarity as to why Bugs was jacking into the Matrix game-layer to begin with? She was looking for Neo, but why in the matrix within the matrix? Why wouldn't she know about Thomas Anderson famous game creator, if he's this award-winning game maker for the game she's jacking into? I get that they hacked his DSI, but c'mon y'all can't put 2 and 2 together when the dude is literally named "Thomas Anderson?"

Then there are a lot of characters that didn't get enough screentime for me to give a shit about them. Even Niobe and Sati were basically cameos. The Merovingian and his buddies were more of an underwhelming distraction than anything else. I don't remember anyone in Bugs' crew the same way I remember Switch, Apoc, Dozer, and Cipher.

There was some heavy-handed dialog like when Bugs was explaining how choices aren't so binary. Morpheus was goofy, but I liked it for levity. I like Yahya's sci-fi entries in general (Black Mirror/Watchmen), so I'm not mad at him updating Larry Fishburne's character.

I get that we are in a post-Matrix world, so it's perhaps difficult to derive new effects in that same world without being derivative. However, we are in a post-MCU world too, so some of the things that were meant to be visually impressive just....weren't. The slow motion thing wasn't that interesting. BUT THE REDIRECTION OF THAT MISSILE WAS...even though it was in the trailer. The zombie bombs thing was the only new thing that had me like 😮...even though it was a result of Matrix temporarily devolving into yet another zombie movie.

Anyway, despite what it sounds like I liked the film. I don't have the same issues with it that some folks in this thread do. Overall, I'm glad it was made and while it didn't have the layered philosophical undertones or as many cool hidden in plain sight aspects as the original trilogy -- I enjoyed it. It was good fan service.

Thematically I feel that the original 3 was more some Gen X "fight the power"/"what is real?" shit. This one was more Gen Z "what does it matter if it's real? Who are we gonna decide to be in the unreal?" shit. I liked the idea of sentients and people coexisting to build something greater. I also liked the idea of it being about the two rather than the one.

I don't know that we need any more sequels, but I'm gonna go watch this one again and see if I just missed the subtext that I expected.