The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

This is another one of those movies where I hesitated quite some time before getting around to watch it. I was worried it was going to either be another woke Hollywood destruction of a franchise or just a mediocre money grab trying to squeeze the last drops out the franchise.
I was wrong though. When the end credits started to roll I found myself having quite enjoyed the movie. Sure, it does not have the wow factor of the first movie but that one was the first with an entirely new story and concept so it is perhaps not so surprising.
I would say that I easily enjoyed this one more than the third movie in the original trilogy though.
They have made a story with a semi-plausible explanation as to why and how Neo is back in the Matrix and why he is alive in the first place.
After a somewhat slow but not at all uninteresting beginning the movie takes of with the usual stunts, mysteries and cool special effects. The martial arts scenes are really not as impressive as in the first movie but the special effects are quite cool.
There is a new bad guy, or should I say program, for Neo to confront and, again, he has some new and old friends to help him. I do miss the original Morpheus though. His replacement do not have the same carisma. Otherwise the characters are not bad.
The weakest character and the only one I did not like at all was the new Smith. This guy was so cool in the original trilogy. The Smith they have in this movie is just your average mediocre Hollywood bad guy.
Overall a quite enjoyable sci-fi/action movie and it was nice to see Keanu Reeves back as Neo.

This a film that shouldn't have been made. I sat beside a Matrix fan who sat through Matrix 2 and Matrix 3. They couldn't sit through this one.
They made this film with the assumption watchers had seen the old ones **and** remembered every detail. Having watched them all myself long ago, the film is filled with references and winks to the old material and I was honestly lost. The references aren't subtle and are cut very badly into the scenes with no sense of flow.
This is done right from the start of the film and just never stops. It's like reliving an acid trip and getting shocked every once in a while to jump in and out of it.
Ignoring the references, the story is just terrible. Within 30 minutes you know how the movie will develop and (probably) end. I couldn't finish it.
Maybe this is for people who have had bad drug experiences and want to show what it's like to another person, but for me, it was not worth watching.