Day of Future Past is a fantastic superhero movie in every way, shape and form... except for the gaping flaw that is its premise.

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2014)

Day of Future Past is a fantastic superhero movie in every way, shape and form... except for the gaping flaw that is its premise. Don't get me wrong, I understand that one must suspend their level of disbelief greatly in order to enjoy these films. Newsflash, I love superhero movies so clearly the suspension of disbelief isn't the issue. There is a difference between being willing to accept something as possible and there being a monumental plot hole, which was the case with this film.
***SPOILERS*** The movie is set WAY into the future where these "robots" called Sentinels have effectively wiped out all mutants in existence and a large portion of the human population as well. Because these Sentinels are too much for the X-Men, they conceive of a plan to send Professor X's consciousness back in time to his younger self, when the Sentinels program was in its infancy in the 1970's, so he can stop Mystique from killing the creator of the program and then being captured and experimented on, which is what results in the Sentinels being the unstoppable force they become. Because sending someone's consciousness back decades would physically tear them apart, the only man for the job is none other than Wolverine.
And that's the premise of the film. Did nobody else scream "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!" when reading that? Allow me to clarify once again. I am willing to accept that there are invincible robots, that mutants exist, and that you can send someone's consciousness back in time decades for an extended period of time. I have no problem with any of those concepts because I have suspended my disbelief completely. However, if you know who creates this horrible program and you can send someone back in time, wouldn't you just send Logan a little further back and kill the creator, effectively eliminating the threat of the Sentinels before they ever exist?
There are other plot holes throughout the film but I'd categorize those as relatively minor, akin to the ones you will typically find, not just in superhero movies but in films in general, so I won't go into detail on those. I'll simply say that a 9 or 10 caliber superhero movie with incredible acting, especially from James McAvoy, great special effects, and awesome action scenes easily drops to a 6 or 7 caliber movie because every single dramatic element was clouded with an "If they did this obvious thing, none of this crap would've happened". (6 + 7)/2 = 6.5, which rounds to 7. That's about the best explanation possible for my reasoning.