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Although the culmination of the Matrix trilogy is thematically disappointing, you could argue that it had to end with the maintenance of the status quo in order to perpetuate the possibility of a virtual prison surrounding the viewer. That unsettling possibility is largely why the original film wasn't just a pop culture flash in the pan. Unfortunately, the use for humans that the film laid out is impractical and inefficient; the robots could have easily survived on geothermal energy. I find this human prison as a lab experiment to be much more compelling.
Is there more to the fabric of reality than meets the eye? I've read too much paranormal material to be comfortable in the concrete world. Is humanity in some kind of enclosure of which we are not aware? I find Fermi's Paradox raises a lot of questions we'll probably never be able to answer until E.T. lands a spaceship on the White House lawn.
It's important to keep in mind one of Arthur C. Clarke's laws--that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I find it hard to believe that, given the age of the universe and the number of planets that could have nurtured intelligent life in this time frame, that Earth could be in this apparent backwater mote of the galaxy. Very unlikely. Yet here we are, reaching out with our radio telescopes to the depths of space and hearing only the echoes of natural phenomena. I contend that space should be dominated by intelligent life and organized by a species, or a coalition of species, that stood the test of time. Either we have bloomed in the wake of a staggering cataclysm, or there is something more to life and the universe than meets the eye. And the odds, in my opinion, favor suspicion, once Occam's Razor is applied.
Is this gap, between the apparent and what should be, that has been historically covered by religion. As long as the stars are silent, the gods will reign, despite the advances of science. And perhaps, ironically, it is the gods themselves who veil our eyes.
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"The idea that money doesn't buy you happiness is a lie put about by the rich, to stop the poor from killing them." -- Michael Caine
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