The Great Man theory and Fictional Worlds

[Bohandas]

The end of the Matrix series was much more a bittersweet and a Gainax Ending than a tragedy. But people clearly didn't expect that either.

There's also the issue of the sci-fi getting much softer in the sequels. The fantastic elements of the first film can be explained away as sloppy research, bad math, believing old wives tales, and studio meddling, but with Neo's acquisition of telekinesis and the ability to connect to the matrix telepathically the sequels were explicitly in the realm of science-fantasy (unless you believe the interpretation that Zion and the rest of the "real world" were actually another simulation)