Rent Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

An Imaginative Treat! - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review by SS

This surpassed any expectations which I, and my family had. Funny, poignant and visually sumptuous this is escapist entertainment, but with an edge. Without delving into any psychological or socio-political reading of the film, it is well-worth watching, not least of which for the stellar cast, the art direction, the set and costume design and, of course, the crisp direction of the story. It looks appealing in the dark aesthetic Burton has established as his own particular USP. With elements of romance and suspense, this adventure is a cinematic journey I can wholly recommend. With Eva Green, Judi Dench and Samuel L.Jackson on screen, this film has its magic in spades.

One of the worst Burton Films of his Career! - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review by CS

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this film, but I have to say that in the end it was nothing but one big disappointment and quite boring and a chore to watch too! There is little originality here, most of the themes, effects, creatures and ideas have been pilfered from past classics, with themes reminiscent of Jason and the Argonauts, Harry Potter, X Men and even Pink Floyd's 'The Wall"! There's nothing very peculiar about the children, if you're familiar with the classics, you'll recognise where most of these ideas come from. Given all the big names in the cast, there is little room for any form of character development and the performances from the big names are limp at best, but this is mainly because they are pushed to the background in favour of the children characters instead, so really the big name actors are merely support for the younger actors in this film! This feels as though it is trying to be an American version of classic European Gothic Fairy Stories such as Pan's Labyrinth, Hell Boy and Harry Potter, with a very American spin, but set in Wales, not that you'd know it or recognise any of the scenery, except for Blackpool tower, set in a place which looks nothing like Blackpool itself! I actually had to watch this in two parts as I found it so boring, so all in not a very well made or imaginative film at all in my opinion!

Bizarre but not great - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review by AB

Another Tim Burton incomprehensible story with so many plot holes as to make it unenjoyable.

Anything involving time travel raises more questions than it should (vide Star Trek in all its guises!) and this one is no different, but the storyline is 'plausible' and, at times, confusing but the whole film is enjoyable to watch.

I'm surprised that, given the US-centric storyline at the start, that Wales was the 'chosen' venue for the storyline and that it wasn't labelled as "Wales near England"!

This should be a TV series really. - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review by Strovey

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.