By KatieBeth Clark
"Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" is director Tim Burton’s newest colorful foray into the world of cinema. However, striking set-pieces and profound cinematography mask most of this movie’s numerous cracks in its façade.
One notable performance is that of Samuel L. Jackson as the movie’s villain, the hollowgast leader Baron. Portrayed as a humanoid creature with piercing white eyes and needle sharp teeth (while painfully obvious that the actor’s own eyes are masked with contacts), he manages to make a very nuanced antagonist that appears to pop right off the screen, with humor similar to that of Loki of another of the actors’ films, "The Avengers."
"Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" is director Tim Burton’s newest colorful foray into the world of cinema. However, striking set-pieces and profound cinematography mask most of this movie’s numerous cracks in its façade.
One notable performance is that of Samuel L. Jackson as the movie’s villain, the hollowgast leader Baron. Portrayed as a humanoid creature with piercing white eyes and needle sharp teeth (while painfully obvious that the actor’s own eyes are masked with contacts), he manages to make a very nuanced antagonist that appears to pop right off the screen, with humor similar to that of Loki of another of the actors’ films, "The Avengers."
Another is that of Eva Green as one of the protagonists, Miss Alma Peregrine, a peculiar known as an ymbryne, with the power to create loops in the fabric of space and time, and shift into a bird. While she is the exposition mule for this film, it’s logical since she is supposed to be the de facto matriarch of the peculiars under her care. And she’s great with a crossbow (which has infinite bolts. That never gets explained.)
Sequences that stood out were the Run Rabbit Run sequence, in which Miss Peregrine resets time just before a German bomb drops and obliterates their house, and the Augusta scene, where Emma Bloom and Jake (the main character) have a talk in a sunken ship.
One thing that I disliked was the fact that all the Peculiars besides a precious few were extremely one-sided and underdeveloped. It seemed like they all had one scene and then were just there as set-pieces and never seen alone again.
While that’s understandable, since the movie would likely be hours long if all the children were completely developed, the movie by itself was already close to three hours long. And it takes a dreadfully long hour out of that time for setup and backstory that could have been done within the span of fifteen minutes.
For almost no reason, there’s also another romantic subplot between two Peculiars named Olive and Enoch (she can control fire, he can animate the dead). Enoch doesn’t like Jake for a laughably vague reason and Olive thinks he’s alright and Enoch’s just being silly.
I disliked a lot of the power-switching and moving around of plot elements that were fine in the book. Book Emma was a volatile, mercurial individual who fluctuated and had a fierce heart. Film Emma was a demure, Mary-Sue*ish blonde with a cutesy blue dress and just a smidgen of personality.
However, I did enjoy the ending being slightly changed to be less bitter and more sweet (the book’s was super sequel-hooky).
All in all, however, this movie was a wonderful experience. While I do have some disagreements with Mr. Burton’s decisions, I enjoyed my time with Miss Peregrine. I hope they have me back for tea again.
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 6/10
Design: 10/10
Script: 7/10
Total: 8/10
* A Mary-Sue (or Gary-Stu) is a character that is practically perfect in every way. They are virtually invincible, with no humanizing flaws, and everyone loves them. Basically what happens when a well-intentioned writer tries to make a powerful, God-like character and ends up making a mess with the writer’s tools they’ve been given.
Sequences that stood out were the Run Rabbit Run sequence, in which Miss Peregrine resets time just before a German bomb drops and obliterates their house, and the Augusta scene, where Emma Bloom and Jake (the main character) have a talk in a sunken ship.
One thing that I disliked was the fact that all the Peculiars besides a precious few were extremely one-sided and underdeveloped. It seemed like they all had one scene and then were just there as set-pieces and never seen alone again.
While that’s understandable, since the movie would likely be hours long if all the children were completely developed, the movie by itself was already close to three hours long. And it takes a dreadfully long hour out of that time for setup and backstory that could have been done within the span of fifteen minutes.
For almost no reason, there’s also another romantic subplot between two Peculiars named Olive and Enoch (she can control fire, he can animate the dead). Enoch doesn’t like Jake for a laughably vague reason and Olive thinks he’s alright and Enoch’s just being silly.
I disliked a lot of the power-switching and moving around of plot elements that were fine in the book. Book Emma was a volatile, mercurial individual who fluctuated and had a fierce heart. Film Emma was a demure, Mary-Sue*ish blonde with a cutesy blue dress and just a smidgen of personality.
However, I did enjoy the ending being slightly changed to be less bitter and more sweet (the book’s was super sequel-hooky).
All in all, however, this movie was a wonderful experience. While I do have some disagreements with Mr. Burton’s decisions, I enjoyed my time with Miss Peregrine. I hope they have me back for tea again.
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 6/10
Design: 10/10
Script: 7/10
Total: 8/10
* A Mary-Sue (or Gary-Stu) is a character that is practically perfect in every way. They are virtually invincible, with no humanizing flaws, and everyone loves them. Basically what happens when a well-intentioned writer tries to make a powerful, God-like character and ends up making a mess with the writer’s tools they’ve been given.