X-Men: Days of Future Past
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: May 23, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 22, 2014
Once every couple of years, a movie comes along to remind us how satisfyingly complex the genre can be. Christopher Nolan’s reimagining of the “Batman” saga did that masterfully. On a slightly less ambitious scale, so does X-Men: Days of Future Past. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 22, 2014
There is action galore, but Future Past is a deeper, richer, more thoughtful film, more existential in its contemplations than earlier Xs, all rather nicely embedded in the mayhem churned up by the mutants' altered states. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 22, 2014
The most striking thing about X-Men: Days of Future Past is its generosity. Huge franchise installments are rarely as enjoyable as this one. They aren't as inventive, richly detailed, surprisingly varied, elegantly crafted or improbably stirring. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 12, 2014
While it's more dramatically diffuse than the reboot and lacks a definitive villain, the new film is shot through with a stirring reverence for the Marvel Comics characters and their universe. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangMay 12, 2014
If the characters’ quandaries at times feel overly circumscribed, they’re also advanced with a bracing emotional directness, devoid of either cynicism or sentimentalism, that touches genuine chords of feeling over the course of the film’s fleet 130-minute running time. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 22, 2014
To reboot the X-Men franchise, director Bryan Singer, who first gave these characters screen life fourteen years ago, has crafted a continuity-lover's nightmare. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 22, 2014
Step up, cynics, and see the summer 2014 blockbuster that gets damn near everything right. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 22, 2014
Think of it as a thrill ride with gravitas. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 21, 2014
Thanks to the first-class special effects, a star-packed cast, screenwriters who know just when to inject some self-aware comic relief without getting too jokey and director Bryan Singer’s skilled and sometimes electrifying visuals, X-Men: Days of Future Past is flat-out big-time, big summer movie fun. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickMay 21, 2014
Bryan Singer’s whip-smart and witty time-travel romp X-Men: Days of Future Past blows a breath of fresh air through the musty Marvel universe. Read full review
85
Paste MagazineScott WoldApr 3, 2018
Singer threads the needle with such apparent effortlessness in stitching it all together, the seams are practically invisible. It may not be as showy as telekinesis or plasma-laser eyes, but it’s an uncanny gift nevertheless. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 22, 2014
I couldn’t follow many of the ins and outs of the time-travel scenario, and I’m not altogether sure that the filmmakers could, either. It doesn’t really matter. It’s enough that the movie is fun. We shouldn’t also expect it to make sense. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 22, 2014
Hold onto your hats, True Believers! This one's got the most massive, momentous montage of Marvel's merry mutants ever mashed into one movie! Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 21, 2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past effectively passes the torch from one generation of socially segregated mutants to the next. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 21, 2014
Not surprisingly, the best thing about Days of Future Past is that it's heavier on the days past than future. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 13, 2014
It feels like the single most successful attempt to pull the shape of one of the beloved comic stories into the film world. It also feels like Bryan Singer has finally figured out how to shoot an action scene where the X-Men actually look and feel like the X-Men, and where the fantastic is handled the right way. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensMay 22, 2014
Days of Future Past is the kind of extravagant production that sweeps you up in a sense of mythic grandeur even as you struggle to follow what’s going on. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 21, 2014
This is a smart movie, a treat for fans of the comics and the franchise. And it's a lot of fun. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyMay 13, 2014
Singer has refreshed the series with blasts of his original entries’ X-factors: vim, levity, clarity and a sincere, soulful grip on the emotional stakes involved. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenMay 12, 2014
With so much going on, and such a ferocious pace, several parts of the story feel undernourished... But what we do get here is largely fantastic. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 23, 2014
Ambitious, even audacious, the movie's mix of action and for-devotees-only intrigue can overwhelm, but there are moments of sheer virtuosity, too. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanMay 22, 2014
It doesn’t take a lot of wit or imagination to use Richard Nixon as a bad guy, but it’s still satisfying to watch a climatic showdown between two supervillains – one brought back from out of the past and the other from off the comic-book page – and wait to see who blinks first. Seems like we’ll always have Nixon to kick around, after all. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 22, 2014
“Days” is fast, smart, well-acted, and intermittently inspired, and if you don’t know or care who Beast or Blink or Storm are, you can safely skip it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 22, 2014
Most important, there is an emotional undercurrent in this installment that the earlier films only aspired to. When for a brief moment, the younger Charles Xavier meets the older, there is the sense of time's mystery - and also of the long, magnificent slog of a purpose-driven life. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 22, 2014
How could you not marvel at a movie that includes a revisionist explanation of the JFK assassination, a football stadium floating over the White House and the sight of Richard Nixon firing a .45 at a villain in a Christ-figure pose? Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 22, 2014
Days of Future Past is, in itself, as intoxicating as a shot of adrenaline. It’s what summer movies are meant to be. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 22, 2014
The deep cast (look out for a slew of crowd-pleasing cameos) play this borderline-silly stuff so well, there isn’t a single unintentional laugh in the entire thing. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 21, 2014
For better or worse, X-Men: Days Of Future Past is the first Marvel movie to truly embrace comics-style storytelling. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 21, 2014
Days of Future Past is most everything we’d hoped the summer’s earlier popcorn pictures would be, most of all — fun. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMay 21, 2014
Spanning across several continents, and obviously decades, Days Of Future Past feels vast and epic in scope. But as large as the movie is, it never loses sight of character and themes (at least the ones that matter). Read full review
72
Film.comJames RocchiMay 22, 2014
Even when it seems mercenary and muddled, X-Men Days of Future Past is enjoyable and well-made and actually about character, a necessary shot of adrenaline born of both inspiration and desperation for a franchise that desperately needed one. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 23, 2014
He’s (Singer) reborn — deft, elegant, spring-heeled — in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The special effects don’t bog him down: They lift the movie to a surreal and more emotional dimension. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 22, 2014
As usual, the characters — and the performers playing them — step unto the breach to provide just enough wit and feeling to make Days of Future Past something other than a waste of a reasonable person’s time. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 22, 2014
I basically really enjoyed this movie, even while lamenting that I was enjoying it under mendacious premises and that there was something fundamentally cynical about its elegiac, retrospective tone. Read full review
70
The DissolveMatt SingerMay 22, 2014
At its best, Days Of Future Past feels not just like an X-Men comic book, but like an X-Men comic-book crossover... Like Days Of Future Past, crossovers in comics tend to be light on character development. But when they’re good, the huge stakes and epic scale of the action make them hard to put down. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 21, 2014
Capitalizes on the audience’s familiarity with the many players and their complex backstories, but never advances the ball down the field, tenders no new thought or wrinkle to the franchise. It’s the difference between a diverting entertainment, and a riveting one. Read full review
67
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 12, 2014
While there are fun moments and a continuation of the franchise's main idea — Professor X's peace, love and understanding vs. Magneto's fight the power — Days of Future Past ends up feeling more exhausting than exuberant. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsMay 22, 2014
It's as visually indistinct and paint-by-numbers-plot-driven as most Marvel Comics-based projects, especially the gaggle of recent Avengers-related films. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 22, 2014
The movie sometimes has the feel of an Olympic sprinter running in place. There’s so much energy expended to get to one spot. Constant searches beget more searches. It all gets exhausting. Read full review
60
CineVueAdam LowesMay 13, 2014
Impressive for the most part without being awe-inspiring, the film's two timelines converge in a much more satisfying and thrilling ways towards the end, where the emotional stakes are considerably upped. Read full review
60
The GuardianSteve RoseMay 12, 2014
Non-devotees might well give up, but director Bryan Singer always has a neat special effect, a well-timed gag or an action set piece around the corner, whipping up the action towards a symphonic climax. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChris CabinMay 22, 2014
It only conveys the awesome strangeness of its characters and their universe when director Brian Singer breaks away from the perpetual build-up of the film's unwieldy plot. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonMay 20, 2014
Future Past starts fast and never slows down. There's not a line of dialogue that isn't exposition... What fun there is slips in through director Bryan Singer's visuals. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 12, 2014
The film squanders both of its casts, reeling from one fumbled set-piece to the next. It seems to have been constructed in a stupor, and you watch in a daze of future past. Read full review
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