Review of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) by Jaime L — 18 Oct 2016

Tim Burton has not had a very good run lately and Piss Peregrine is not the film that will break his losing streak. Its a good looking film like Burton movies are, don't get me wrong (with the exception of an awful CGI squirrel) but unfortunately the rest of the film is very bland. The characters are flat and the acting even more so, with the exception of Eva Green as Miss Peregrine who was passable enough given what dimension her character had. Asa Butterfield, the lead here was in and out of tolerable to terrible with a particular shuddering example of him calling out to a bird in the first act of the film. Everyone else was forgettable with no character behind them beyond their "peculiarities". The world being built here was confusing and didn't seem coherent to me, I don't know if much thought went into the world building beyond the mutants... I mean Peculiars powers.

What really dragged this down from the 6/10 I was going to give it originally was the third act. When it all hits the fan in the film everything from there on goes off a cliff, everything from plot, character choices to dialogue goes down in quality. I had a hard time not groaning in the theater, didn't want to disturb the half dozen other people in there with me.

This film does feel a cross between X-Men and Harry Potter, everyone should watch those films and avoid this.