Some folks in another post were bitching about loose plot points, but okay, what plot points were not tied up? Persephone was just window dressing in Reloaded, but she just happened to help things along. So what was that about? Yeah, she's hot to look at, but she's a program! What can she do besides what she was designed to do? But that was never explained.
As far as the ending, when you think about it, unless the machines won (which they didn't) or the humans won, which they couldn't have, it ended the only way it could end. Its open ended, but
SPOILER ALERT...kinda
The architect and the Oracle were playing around with the whole thing and the architect said that the minds that wanted to be freed would be freed and the ones that wanted to remain (like Cypher...and probably my sister, if this joint was real) could remain. The Oracle's whole deal was choice. Instead of being forced to do things, which was what Neo refused to accept, everyone had a choice. She was tired of the old way of doing things, which was creating a Zion and a "one" who gave that false sense of hope to the human race, only to see things destroyed. Watch the Second Renaissance again, and then watch the first two. After that, go see this one again, and if you still don't like it, for whatever reason...well...that's your opinion.
The question would be whether or not human nature would lead the surviving Zionites to try and come back to the surface and take over again, or would they just decide to live in Zion and jack in whenever to do whatever.
I thought the shit was good, but then again, I can see the good points in Star Wars...I mean, they're all just movies, not life changing experiences. Plus if you think this flick sucked, go see Underworld and then Scary Movie 3 and then check this again.
ANOTHER SPOILER:
In case you missed it, the end of Neo was the end of Smith. In the first flick, when Neo merged with Smith, he became the positive and Smith became the negative. Its just like math, -1 and 1 equal 0. Once Smith merged with Neo, Smith could no longer exist. Neo figured that out because he couldn't finish Smith and Smith couldn't finish him. Its mathematics.
The next "one" will probably be the one that merges the machine and human world together for better or for worst.
In the first flick the Oracle told Neo he'd have to choose, and that was consistent with what happened here. Everything in Reloaded was the inciting incident for this one. That's my OPINION and what I got out of it.
Forget the philosophy for a second and think about the things that this flick and the Terminator films say about human nature. Philosophy has so many different interpretations, but human nature is just that and to me, that's what these flicks represent.
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, the world is a fine place and worth fighting for. He was right about the second part."