They're making a Matrix 5.

[Dragonus45]

As I said before, the Architect scene is to me the best part of the movie. It absolutely sizzles to me, precisely because it's the point where the standard hero journey bit stops and gets recontextualized into yet another layer of control. Having the hero find out they've been doing the villain's bidding all along isn't all that weird, but the way it connects to the overall theme and structure of the film is genuinely unique.

Part of this is that as I've gotten older, I've found the action bits of the Matrix less and less interesting, and the philosophical bits more layered and interesting. This isn't to diss the action, I'd happily put the lobby fight on a list of all time greats, but if I watch the Matrix any given Friday, it isn't why. The Architect scene is, to me, the movies finally cashing that check.

I appreciate more and more as I get older the Architect as a concept. But I still find that all the energy of the movie just drains out when it gets to him whenever I go to re watch the series. It's not entirely his fault, middle movies of a trillogy always seem to suffer when it comes to being a complete story while also existing as a sequel and a prequel at the same time and Reloaded is paced poorly outside of just his scene. His scene is just the moment the wheels fall off. Also a non zero part of this problem? For all the unfortunate ideas implicit, and explicit, in the philosophy of rebellion as presenting in the Matrix that some people were cognizant of and were willing to critique I think that Reloaded expected too much from the wider audience in how aware and ready to engage with that discourse they were. The Architect was just not the best tool to get someone who wasn't already plugged in there to start searching for the outlet.

It is half of the story. You can criticize Reloaded and Revolutions for not being good standalone films due to that. But do you extend that to other multipart films? Do you also complain that (say) Peter Jackson's the Two Towers isn't much of a story?

Yes, Twin Towers isn't a great example since it did have conflicts to play out to completion and form character arcs inside of it though in a way Reloaded doesn't.

That's untrue. Remember what Architecht said: "She is going to die and there is nothing you can do about it."

Neo does nothing about in Resurrections. His and Trinity's continued existence was completely out of his hands. It is other people who make the choice to bring them back, a choice they only make because of Neo's and Trinity's earlier sacrifice and disappearance. Resurrections isn't subtle about this point.

You don't have to let Resurrections off the hook just for that, though. You can fairly argue the movie makers had better options than bringing Neo and Trinity back. You can also argue they could've made a better movie about them coming back. But saying the earlier sacrifice was meaningless because of an ultimate happy ending (20 years later in real life and 60 years later in the movie!) is silly.

Nah, the ending is totally re-contextualized by the Revolution in not a great way. Yes sure you can say the important bit was the willingness to make that sacrifice, and I have heard people argue that the happyish ending of Resurrection is justified as a reward for their selflessness which is as fair a reading as any, but ultimately it does completely change the impact and feel of that ending which otherwise I thought of as one of the high points of the movie. Meaningless is a very fair way to describe that loss of impact.