X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

The best scene in Days of Future Past belongs to a guy who barely shows up. Quicksilver’s kitchen sequence, set to a slow song while he rearranges a room full of bullets, is so fun it makes everything around it look a little stiff. That’s the main knock. The time travel rules get fuzzy the second you poke them, and the dark future scenes are mostly people standing around waiting for the next Sentinel attack. Everything else is a blast. Hugh Jackman gets to play Logan as the grown-up in the room for once, babysitting a younger, wrecked Charles, and James McAvoy is great as a guy who gave up on everything. Michael Fassbender’s Erik lifting a whole stadium is peak villain behavior. Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique finally gets a story that hinges on her choices. It made $746 million worldwide, which tracks. An 8.3 because it braids two casts and two timelines together without dropping anything that matters. $50.61 says you rewatch the kitchen scene before you finish reading this.

What works: Quicksilver’s kitchen sequence, McAvoy and Fassbender at full strength, and a time travel plot that juggles two casts without collapsing.

What doesn’t: The time travel logic falls apart if you poke it, and the future scenes are thin, mostly mutants waiting for the next attack.

Who it’s for: X-Men fans who want the old cast and the young cast in one movie, and anyone who loves a good time travel caper.