I have heard a simlar theory about alien movies. ET and Close Encounters are great examples.
Basically it goes something like this... the aliens have had contact with our government ever since the Rosewell incident. But these aliens are actually bent on domination of the Earth and our governments are in on it. So, in order to prepare us for the introduction, the government uses movies that paint these evil aliens in a positive way as a method to desensize us to the fact that they are among us. Part of the theroy comes from the hysteria that followed the "War of the Worlds" broadcast by Orson Wells. Supposedly, there was a rash of suicides the night of that program (could be urban legend), and ever since then, the government has been using movies to make us less afraid of the "Alien Menace".
Oh yeah... and I belived the Matrix
DB.