Not sure if would say is all kids film? Maybe 10/12 onwards to be fair. Is bit too seriously weird in places....Tim Burton.....some of it would freak small ones.
Typical things out of Nightmare Before Xmas etc.
Is well acted and well made, and something a bit quirky, so stands out from a lot of the detritus inflicted on the screen over last few years.
Like a lot of Burton’s films this is based on children’s literature and like a lot of his interpretations you have to think, is this too dark, a little too scary for the younger audience it is aimed at? Afterall, we have some scary CGI lanky limbed monsters that people turn into that eat eyeballs and you see them eating eyeballs. Hmmmm, how is your 10-year-old’s sleep? Topped with a scary looking Samuel L Jackson hamming it up in full-on scare-mode and I am not 100% sure smaller children and some adults are going to be comfortable viewing this film. Quite often I feel this way about Burton’s films. I mean we know kids like being scared, Dr. Who when I was a kid, but I was not allowed to watch Dracula where people were being killed in full frontal blood mode.
It is fair to say Burton is uneven in his films and ‘Miss Peregrine’ is in this category. When it is fun and entertaining it is particularly good but when it is scary, drags or gets disjointed it is disappointing. Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children is exactly this.
We are led into the story a little slowly, with Jacob’s mum soon discarded and never seen again and although this can be a little annoying for modern audiences it does make the second half of the film more compelling as we meet up with the peculiar children caught in time-loop during the war. Words that should make most imaginative people sit upright and pay attention. The time loop is fun with everyone in the home stuck knowing what is going to happen at the exact time – so the same phone call, the same squirrel falling out of its nest and the same attack by a monster. Great concept and the ultimate boredom of some of the children are well realised. It is Groundhog Day but without the crescendo of resolution.
Near the end we get into an escape from evil things with tricks and subterfuge, each child character getting a little set piece with their powers – entertaining enough but so far, so familiar. As a grown man with reasonable cognitive-functioning aspects of the time-travelling and loops did get a little confusing but much like the aforementioned Dr. Who it seemed easy to watch, enjoy, and just let it drift.
With some of the effects you can see the budget but in general the overall look and feel of the film is good enough. All the adult actors are equally good enough without being outstanding, Eva Green is the lynch-pin adult and is great in her role although she is used sparingly, Chris O’Dowd seems to slip into any character easily enough but is also used sparingly and seems forgotten by the end of the story. Both Allison Janney, Rupert Everett and Judi Dench are fine actors but they do just seem like high-value window-dressing and Samuel L Jackson seems nowadays to just play the same character, he always has a least two sentences in every film that start ‘Did I not just say….’ regardless of the setting. Put him in a grey fright-wig and fetish doll teeth and he is still Samuel L Jackson from ‘that film we saw last week’, shame as he does have more to offer.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is an odd film, entertaining enough I watched it from start to finish without my mind or attention wandering, the acting, in general, was fine and everything was neat and seemed to fit in its place. But something was missing, dare I be so pretentious as to say the ‘soul’ of the story, I cannot really say but something was missing. Once again with so many films that I watch there is a good film in there, but it is stifled.
Overall, not really scary or mysterious enough for older children and adults and perhaps a little too scary for the younger viewers. No age group can understand the time-travelling though.
Neil Patrick Harris, I see your next Netflix project on the horizon sir.
OK so this is so-so is all ways - so-so script, so-so story, the usual so-so CGI effects etc. It has a stellar cast including Judy Dench (who no doubt is still hugging the large cheque). But all in all it left me a little bit cold.
But it's not that bad. A well-worm time-travel plot. A build-up to an improbably finale. A love interest.
A Brit comedian dons a good US accent to play the kid's father and the lead actor Asa Butterfield is well cast. Terence Stamp seems a bit miscast for some reason though... Not sure why.
I tire of fantasy and sci-fi - the way anyone can solve a problem by waving a wand or using magic powers is tiresome indeed and all a bit of a cop-out.
But watchable so 3 stars.
A peculiar film indeed: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by director Tim Burton is all you’ve come to expect by director Tim Burton in the last decade or so. It follows a tim-burton-esque formula that includes bizarre creatures, over-blown mysteries and Eva Green stepping in for the (for some reason) absent Helena Bonham Carter. Still, the film is fun as heck and I’m glad I watched it nevertheless.
During the years, Tim Burton’s talent to tell a story slowly changed (or morphed) into that which puts esthetics in the first place. Why is this so is left open for speculation, but one thing is clear: Burton abandoned classical storytelling in favor of something new, i.e. telling a story trough external factors such as a dim color palette, eccentric apparitions and a same acting cast spanned across several decades.
From here onward it’s clear: either we don’t understand Burton’s genius, or the former Disney animator is slowly losing his touch. I tend to believe it is the former, rather than the latter.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ‘borrows’ heavily from other works, such as Frankenweenie and Edward Scissorhands, while some would argue that here Tim Burton is choosing to quote himself by introducing similar elements to the present storyline. Whichever is true, one is certain: Asa Butterfield is a rising star and kudos for his convincing acting.
The story is as follows: after Jake (played by Asa) founds out from his grandfather’s stories something peculiar about a certain orphanage in Wales, he embarks on a quest to find out what’s going on. He then meets Miss Peregrine who in turn explains some peculiar understandings of Jake himself: namely, he’s a certain kind who holds powers granting him the ability to manipulate time. From there onward, Jake battles the Barron (played by Samuel L. Jackson), who in turn wants to become immortal no matter the cost.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is an altogether fun experience, provided you leave your antagonism toward Tim Burton outside the theater. It’s also full with fantastical creatures which employ stylized gothic outsides that, and I must admit, are creative and original enough to differ from previous Burton features of similar theme and tone.
Of course, nothing would have ended up so magical without the creative mind of writer Ransom Rigg, his vision about the so-called antagonists hollowgasts, what they eat and how they behave. This could’ve been visually explored further, but it’s good enough as it is.
All taken in consideration, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children works on both levels - as a movie for adults to find some entertainment and younger folk to enjoy. Yes, it contains all tropes Tim Burton uses and abuses throughout the years, but given recent Hollywood – do you find yourself as having a choice?