Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a 58% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.2/10 based on 31 reviews. The website's consensus reads: "Fancy effects, comic-book nostalgia, and an alluring cast help keep it afloat, DC's Legends of Tomorrow suffers from an overloaded cast of characters that contribute to a distractingly crowded canvas."[65] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[66]
Russ Burlingame from ComicBook.com praised the pilot saying, "The series delivers a sharp, enjoyable pilot that's arguably the most attention-grabbing and entertaining from any of the current crop of superhero shows.... With so many movies and shows on the air, it would be easy for it all to become a kind of white noise... but DC's Legends of Tomorrow promises to give the year a suitably impressive kickoff, and fulfills the promise of being the most ambitious DC adaptation yet."[67] Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the first part of the pilot episode a 7.7/10, praising the show's "epic scope", "fun character dynamics" and Arthur Darvill's performance;[68] and gave the second part of the pilot episode a 8.4/10 saying that "Legends of Tomorrow improved in its sophomore episode thanks to great character dynamics and superhero action" and praised the fun team ups and the "Terrific superhero spectacle".[69]