Review: 'Dark Fate' is the best 'Terminator' sequel in over 20 years

It's strangely comforting to see the end of the world looming once more in "Terminator: Dark Fate." You can already guess how it begins: Out of the nighttime shadows emerges a sentient slab of metal and muscle, a butt-baring, ass-kicking emissary from the future that will not rest until its deadly mission is complete, and probably not even then. By now, there is something curiously quaint, even comforting, about this menacing opener, which kicked off James Cameron's original "Terminator" 35 years ago and has remained a visual mainstay of its four highly variable sequels.

Maybe it's because the world seems so much more complicated and terrifying now than it did in 1984, but surely there are darker fates that might await