The most unrealistic detail

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2003)

Yes, I enjoyed this movie immensely. It was no Terminator 2, but I am a huge fan of any Terminator movie. Here are my 3 contributions-

1. EVERYONE seems to be addressing the issue of John Connor's age discrepancies. Yes, it makes no sense that John was born in '85 and blew up Cyberdine at age 13 (making it 1998) and is now in his early 20's. It's a detail that should be overlooked. James Cameron had a great idea for a movie- what was he supposed to do, wait several years so John would be old enough to be a punky young teenager, or make the movie in the early 90's and have John a 7 year old boy? Movies are made to entertain. If movies were based on ONLY fact, they would be dull. And if you are going into a movie about time traveling robots, you have to check some of your cynicism at the door.
2. I really want there to be a Terminator 4. It could wrap everything up and show the humans defeating the machines. It would be hard to do, because the actors have aged, but how cool would it be to incorporate all the time traveling missions? Show John sending Kyle, show John reprogramming and sending a T800 to protect himself as a 13 year old, and show what happens with the Terminator eventually killing John and then being reprogrammed by Kate to come back to 2003? The whole thing with John being killed by the T800 was really left open, maybe for a sequel. Why would Kate send the exact robot that killed John back to protect him? It seems almost like you're asking for trouble. If a machine killed my spouse, the last thing I would want to do would be to use that machine in a way that would help me in any way. I would want it destroyed as soon as possible. Perhaps Kate was left with no choice. Or perhaps she didn't even know that the T800 she had captured killed John. All things that are left for a part 4.
3. Finally, here is what I found to be most unrealistic about the film. I haven't seen anyone else comment about this. Why would John Connor, a young man who lives more or less like a bum and apparently works construction, KNOW HOW TO OPERATE A PARTICLE ACCELERATOR???