Finally saw this, borrowed from the library. There's usually a long waiting list when I reserve a recent movie DVD from the library, but there was no wait at all for this, so I wonder if that says something about its reception by the audience.
Anyway, I thought it was reasonably good for the most part. Obviously very meta and self-referential, but that was good in its way, because it wasn't just trying to copy the original formula but was doing something different with its elements. And in some ways, it critiqued the originals' mindset, by challenging the concept of binaries like humans-vs.-machines. Really, I'm surprised they didn't do more with that theme. It's always been a trans narrative, but it doesn't have to be as coded now as it was then. I thought there'd be more with Smith as the embodiment of the binary mindset, countered by the heroes arguing for a more flexible way of defining things. And I thought Smith would end up changing sides to symbolize the rejection of the binary. There was a temporary alliance, but it didn't stick.
I did love it that humans and machines are now coexisting, and I wish we'd gotten more with the synthients. Kujaku in particular was beautiful. (The name is Japanese for peacock.) Jessica Henwick, Yahya Abdul-Mahteen II, and Neil Patrick Harris were all excellent.
Unfortunately, I found a lot of the story vague and hard to follow. I didn't think it was made very clear just what the threat was, or what the stakes were, beyond Neo saving Trinity. Something to do with the Analyst having his own Matrix, but it was all kind of abstract. When they unplugged Trinity, I had no idea what they were trying to do by plugging in Bugs in her place. And the action climax that followed made no sense to me at all. I had no idea whether the mass attack against the heroes was the will of the Analyst, Smith, or something else. Smith seemed to have blown the Analyst apart and taken over, but then Smith suddenly turned into someone else who said "What just happened?" and then Smith wasn't there anymore. So I had no idea which of them was behind the attack. It's a badly written action climax when the viewer doesn't even know who the heroes are fighting or why. I also literally couldn't tell which side the Merovingian and his allies were fighting for in the climax. And I didn't understand why Neo and Trinity had to stay in the Matrix and go through that huge chase and shootout, when Neo had said just minutes earlier that there were people waiting to unplug him at a moment's notice. Why not just unplug both of them?
And in retrospect, I agree with earlier comments in this thread that the action sequences were fairly cursory compared to what I expect from a Wachowski production (though with the usual excess of gunplay which is my least favorite aspect of their work). The whole thing seemed dingy and low-budget compared to the slick originals.
