Watched Matrix 4 recently, and had a lot of thoughts about it:
For the first twenty minutes, it seems like exactly the thing you would fear it to be. Filled with references to the first Matrix, with a younger, hipper cast. Just go with it. It'll take a turn.
Once it gets to Neo having the discussions with the focus groups and representative for Warner Bros, I totally understood what they were going for, and I absolutely loved it.
It's a thinly-veiled autobiography of Lana Wachowski, talking about creating the original Matrix, that was treated as a commercial object, which had to have sequels made with bullet time, and leather jackets, and philosophizing, but which was also important to a lot of trans people.
And taking this thing that was important to trans people as this metaphor of awakening and transformation, and realizing that this thing you made can apply to you, and can inspire your own literal awakening. That's what Morpheus in this movie is, he's a representation of how Lana Wachowski experienced The Matrix herself as a source of strength, and a tool to be true to herself in a world that is so hostile to trans people (loved the sequence where people are throwing themselves out of windows to attack Neo and Trinity)
And although I don't know all the details of how Lilly made her transition, it's hard not to read the relationship between Neo and Trinity as partially a stand-in for Lana 'waking up' Lilly to the truth that Lana has already seen.
Then there's also the metaphorical significance of Keanu Reeves, as a masculine self-identity entering the Matrix to rescue/awaken a feminine self-identity.
As for the dodgy fight scenes and effects, the movie explains *in itself* that this whole movie is a contractual obligation to focus groups and producers. They feel perfunctory because they literally are, and the lengths to which the movie goes to explain that, while also being that, is maybe the most The Matrix thing ever.
In short, I think it's a very rich and very personal film, and it might be my favorite movie of 2021.