I don't see this as a trilogy-starter at all, nor do I see it as a finale to the story (
Revolutions remains that). This is much more an epilogue/coda and, prominently, a very contained romance - and a very personal one at that. More intimate in scale, and personal to these specific characters, and to Lana Wachowski herself. If in
The Matrix, the romance was the backdrop to the much bigger conflict at play, then in
Resurrections we're really seeing the inverse of that structure. There's a war going on, but what's really going to make everything ok is these two resurrected beings - these two halves of a singular entity, really - coming together. And
The Matrix is a franchise that put its foot down right from movie number one and established the love between Neo and Trinity as being strong enough to literally bring Neo back to life, so hey, if the shoe fits!
A lot of it clicks into place even more, knowing what compelled Lana to actually agree to make the film this time, after years of Warner Bros pestering her and her sister to come back and eventually threatening that, with or without the Wachowskis, a "Matrix 4" would eventually happen.
Revolutions finished the story, completed the cycle innate to the original trilogy.
Resurrections is much smaller, and sets out to do something different with its characters in the wake of that - and for me, at least, it succeeds. I don't want any more Matrix movies, and certainly not without either Wachowski at the helm. I got everything I could ever want out of it and more, now. And honestly, with all of the shit happening in the world right now, on a personal scale and at large, this kind of earnest, hopeful sentiment in the face of hardship is something I find myself really enamored with right now.
And as for the film having disdain for its audience - I don't think that's entirely accurate. This is a movie with its intent so genuine, and its heart on its sleeve the entire time. But also, one that recognizes that the only reason it even exists is because of the current climate that Hollywood is stuck within - reboots of decades-old properties, continuous sequels, ongoing cinematic universes, franchise resurrections, etc. That's the name of the game right now, and attaching a name like "Matrix" to the film is the only way Lana Wachowski was ever going to get a big, personal, heartfelt sci-fi film greenlit in this climate, especially after the box office failures of the Wachowskis' last couple movies (and that is very much reflected within the body of this film, in Lana's scathing analysis of modern day Hollywood as seen in the Analyst's characterization and his outlook on this world, the role "Warner Brothers" plays within the Matrix itself, Neo being forced to drop his "Binary" project in favor of continuing on the "Matrix" brand despite vowing to never want to do that, the Merovingian clamoring for a "spinoff" and screaming about the way things used to be, etc.). The meta stuff isn't just a wink and a nod - it's at the core of why this movie even exists in the first place, and makes a very strong case for Lana Wachowski being one of the few filmmakers working within a big brand right now to really be able to shake that system and use an established property to tell a story personal to her, the way she wants to.
This movie isn't for everyone, certainly. But I personally loved it, and found it to be one of the very best of this sort of 'decades later' franchise continuation films (alongside the likes of
Mad Mad: Fury Road and
Blade Runner 2049).