So the big question a Matrix sequel had to answer is: Why? For those who thought the first trilogy ended in a satisfying place, there’s no need for a sequel like this, with the original characters. For those who hated the ending, a sequel like this couldn’t possibly redeem it.

And so the movie lampshades this question by having a videogame trilogy called The Matrix inside of the matrix, and the studio heads of Warner Bros. demanding a sequel, and then everyone sits around trying to think of what a sequel would even be like, basically bullet-pointing every “The Matrix Was Really All About X” essay of the last two decades in a quick brainstorming session. But they never do come up with any satisfying answers, it’s hard not to notice.

The good news is that if there’s no real reason for this movie to exist, it at least sidesteps all the most obvious reasons why its existence would be terrible: It’s not a reboot, nor does it completely erase the significance of the previous movie trilogy — what Neo and Trinity accomplished there really did matter, and really changed things. It’s just that history never ends, and there’s always some kinda shit going down. I can’t really think of a better way to handle a long-afterward sequel, so I’m glad this is the direction they picked.

So okay, it never made a forceful case for being necessary, but also avoided the worst pitfalls of existing at all, so let’s just take the existence of a sequel at this late date as basically neutral. How does it work as just a movie in its own right?

And this is where I think it most disappoints. The worst part of the original Matrix movies was The Architect monologuing at length about how the Matrix works, and the villain in this one is basically cut from the same mold, chock full of speechifying about The Meaning Of It All. On the plus side, it’s Neil Patrick Harris, who is a great monologuer. But on the minus side… still lotsa monologues that totally kill all sense of forward momentum at multiple points in the movie.

And beyond that, the movie leans really heavily into reprise. Scene after scene plays out very like the originals, or else in a way that’s clearly not like the originals for significant reasons. And if they were doing a remake or a “oops, it’s another cycle of these events,” okay, that would make sense, but — past the initial part — there’s no real in-movie reason that things need to be so similar, and yet, there it is. It ends up feeling like allegory, like you’re just seeing all the stock tropes used and recombined in different ways, and trying to see the significance of why Neo can’t fly here or whatever.

I don’t think it’s a bad movie. It has things to say, it’s developing and expanding on ideas that the first movies threw out there, and it still has some style to it. But at this remove, I really would want a sequel to be its own thing, and this feels too much like trying to get the band back together and play the old favorite hits again.