Great action, performances, atmosphere and story continues the X-men saga

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2014)

After X-men First Class, the X-men franchise was given a breath of fresh air. This movie continues the same level of of quality story telling and great characters. The beginning of the movie and future scenes felt very similar to the bleak future portrayed in Terminator, after judgement day. The streets are littered with bones, the skies are dark, and sentinel carrying ships are tracking down the X-men. The main cast members are all back, and once again McAvoy, Fassbender, their older counter-parts, and everyone else are totally in character. Although Jennifer Lawerence wasn't given much to work with in the first one, she definitely holds her own with some great talent. I feel that the last X-men had Fassbender steal the show, in this one, McAvoy steals the show with his portrayal of a broken Professor X. I also liked how the time travel technique was different from most other movies. Some really cool mutant powers were introduced, such as Blink with her portals and Quicksilver with his superspeed.
SPOILERS BELOW (mini-criticism)
The after-credits scene seemed very unpolished, and almost had video- game level graphics for the special effects. I'd prefer that directors simply withhold these kinds of teases, when clearly they don't have the time or resources for the correct effect. A similar problem existed for Thor 2, which had a very cartoonish after-credits scene that may be corrected in Guardians of Galaxy.