They're making a Matrix 5.

[Vahnavoi]

@Dragonus45: the Two Towers might not be the best example, but I didn't pick it randomly: I have seen it criticized for precisely the flaw you lay at the feet of Reloaded. Comparing where Two Towers succeeds in a way Reloaded doesn't is useful, but it doesn't answer the underlying question: does every movie truly have to be able to stand alone?

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The architect truly does not have much in the way of a point. The transcript of it is available here.

I can watch the scene at will, you know. Throwing a transcript around doesn't make your case stronger.

The matrix reveals that this is iteration #6, Neo makes an unfounded but correct guess that choice is responsible. Thematically fitting, but from a conversational perspective, disjointed as hell. The initial failure and the need for iterations is not truly a reveal. This was already discussed in the first movie, which Smith flat out tells Morpheus this. Therefore, this is not actual progression of the plot. Oh, a number is given. The number doesn't much matter. If there had been five Neos or seven, the story would be the same.

Yes, the earlier versions were discussed before - by different characters, in a different movie, in different context. Just the fact that it's a fully lucid Neo there, reacting to the information imparted, rather than barely-conscious Morpheus, makes a relevant difference. You are right the exact number does not matter, but the fact that it is more than two establishes a new and important fact: this has happened before and Zion has fallen before. Neo even remarks on it being new information to him. That alone gives a point to reiterating this information.

The first movie already gave us the Oracle explaining that Neo had to choose between his life and Morpheus's. This...isn't fundamentally different. We've just changed the people in the choice. Only, it is not even a true choice. Trinity dies regardless, and apparently will be revived regardless. So, it is literally just discussion, and hardly even that. The Architect does all the talking here, it is a lecture. Barely more than a voice over.

Of course it isn't fundamentally different since it's continuation of a theme. Ditto for the choice possibly not being a true choice, which also a recurring theme in Reloaded and Revolutions. It's like you almost got the point but then didn't realize it's a point the movie was trying to make to you.

But you make a mistake in not considering the path not taken. If Neo had not chosen to rescue Trinity, his actions would've not lead to Revolutions and Resurrections. There is no good faith argument to be made that it wouldn't have made a difference. Another way to realize this is to consider common audience reactions to the Trolley Problem, which Neo's choice is a version of: there's always a segment of people who refuse to accept the terms and insist on finding a third option. The Architecht's bit about hope points this out, and, again, tells us something about who these characters are. The exchange tells us that Neo does not genuinely want extinction of everyone - he's hoping for another choice beyond this one, and his quest for that choice is the entirety of Revolutions. The weight of Trinity's death is to pull the rug from under such third optionism: it is not in Neo's hands to save his cake and eat it too. It is exactly as the Architecht said.

Additional information from Resurrections does not change that last bit. It is abundantly clear his and Trinity's resurrection was not in Neo's hands, it's not a choice he made nor information that factored into the decision he made. It is a pretty bad case of hindsight bias to use events decades after-the-fact to recharacterize a decision.

The whole "peace is the answer" is again negated by the existence of the fourth film. After all, we basically end up with the cycle restarting all the same, showing that choosing peace is literally futile.

Except the lines of conflict got redrawn, it's no longer the same people fighting for the same sides. I'll grant you that Resurrections doesn't focus on this enough to make you feel the difference, but it does explicitly address it.

Remember: I don't particularly like Resurrections either. What bothers me is not your dislike for it, it's when your justification for that dislike turns ignorant of what happened on the screen.