Review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) by Dukejon — 04 May 2019

Never read the books, though as a movie this didn't really work for me. Firstly, it takes ages to get going. The home preamble before the house is discovered could have easily been cut in half. I just didn't care about the relationship he had with his father, it was totally incidental to the plot.

Secondly, when he arrives at the house we find that none of the children's characters are developed beyond their freakish ability. The only one you warm to is the blonde girl. The hollows and the whole business of eye-eating is so grotesque and terrifying I am surprised it made the age-rating it did.

Lastly, other than Eva Green (who doesn't have a huge amount of screen time) there weren't really any standout performances. Terence Stamp phoned it in whereas Samuel Jackson went the other way and hammed it up, basically playing the same part he has played in all his movies since Pulp Fiction.

Judi Dench is in it for literally three scenes. The CGI battle on Blackpool pier is very jarring compared to everything that happened before. I just think that is Spielberg has directed this movie it would have come out a lot better.

As it stands it was weird but not in a good way, and often quite boring.