The basic prediction, that everything is in waves; that after the day comes night and after the night comes day; or that after the liberal periods comes totality and after totality comes liberation - this prediction is always correct. There is just the small problem to recognize what is the topic. But no - not everything will go through unpredicted way. I strongly oppose this. Maybe most of the things yes. But some things are predictable and life is worth of looking for such the things.
I was also trapped in postmodern hell that I feel from you and I started to look for the way out. The way out for me is money. Not the money itself, I do not give a **** about it. But betting the money gives you a proof if there is at least something predictable or not. If nothing is predictable, you can not make money from bets. If at least something is predictable - you can make your bank. I am not long time betting on sports, but in broader sense on reality. My bank is going up. That means - and I am surprised - that some things are predictable. The predictions are really not extrapolations like to extend inches of horse excrements. The predictions are exactly what I am talking here about. It is a real thing.
Now we are deep in the totality. It is not just oppression. Totality is a stronger term. It is totality in what we live. Totality is something like oppression where the people do recognize the oppression as normal. The eclipse of oppression is "total", this is why totality has such a name.
I like Equillibrium really more, because it is straightforward, it has very simple message: you want freedom? You want to be a complete human? Then you have to accept chaos, war, atrocities, tears, poor, rich, power, not-always-consensual sex, often you will harm someone and occasionally you might kill someone. There is no bright side without the dark side.
Just look what the Western Europe is getting from current Russian philosophy. I am not talking here about Putin, politics etc. I am talking about people like Konstantin Bogomolov (but you can feel this coming from Russia for decades since Tarkovskij [here funny thing - I doubt anyone knows Tarkovskij here, I did not want to mention him here, but right as I deleted the mention about "Tarkovskij" my banker wrote me a message on Telegram about him just out of blue sky]). The point is that people in the west already do live in (non)Equillibrium world: castrated, mentally dull, without genuine and always controversial feelings, "wanting" something without knowing why. This is what we do: https://www.dietistaktuellt.com/forum/need-some...tml#post953316
The Matrix I do not like because the message is lost in the rich story. As I said, I did not see many people who talked about ending and those few who did, said it was weird. The Matrix for them is the battle of Neo, who gets the stupid red pill and who is on the right track to fight the evil. While the real message of Matrix is Zizek talking about the third pill". See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUyrgEtzbvM
Matrix as whole has the same message as Equillibrium but sadly Matrix leaves too much space for our perverted meme culture to be perceived exactly in the opposite way. Just see the ultra-idiotic US Red Pill Movement, who think they are the real woke people who stand against the leftist woke people. They think they have the reality, while they are opposing just the regular mainstream reality and thus they are helping to keep it alive. (In a way this is kidnapping and distorting the symbol just like when it is about Fight Club and using "Tyler Durden" at borderline conspiracy webpage ZeroHedge).
So again - while the message of Matrix - "if you want to be free of machines, you have to deliberately accept to be part of them"; is the same as Message of Equillibrium - "if you want Equillibrium, you have to let things flow; included the dark things you do not like", I prefer Equillibrium. Exactly because it is - as you say - shallow and not deep. It is narrow. It is where the beauty is. Because about Matrix anyone can talk and think in postmodern way and the real message is lost (now for sure once RP started to be a thing). With Equillibrium the message is 100% straightforward.