Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

[SeanC]

Tim Burton's X-Men, with as many non-white actors as the material called for! (for the record, there is no reason why Jackson's character either could or could not have been black)

This was...surprisingly enjoyable, particularly for late-period Burton.  The effects are generally well-integrated and non-intrusive, and while his style is undeniably present, it doesn't feel like it's smothering the material.  The cast's all good, and the main characters are fleshed out reasonably effectively for this sort of story.  The film loses a bit of steam in the final third, as a consequence of, first, Burton's mediocre handling of the action sequences, which, while imaginative in many respects, aren't well-paced; and second, because the nature and effect of the collapsing time loops is utterly incomprehensible (as far as I can figure out, the end of a loop effectively rewrites the whole main timeline, but none of the characters really suggest this, and when Jake returns home his grandfather's life appears to have been basically the same), which makes the stakes rather confusing.  But overall, I still liked it.

[jcin617]

Yeah I didn't quite follow how his grandfather would be alive again just because they killed Baron a few months earlier in 2016 - the Baron and his accomplice that killed his grandfather were there far earlier in their own respective time frames, plus there should have been another Jake back home too.

Edited October 1, 2016 by jcin617

[Wiendish Fitch]

So this film has come under fire for its lack of diversity. I haven't seen it, and I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read the book yet, either, so I'm curious: are the criticisms justified? Is Tim Burton guilty of whitewashing? 

[SeanC]

58 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

So this film has come under fire for its lack of diversity. I haven't seen it, and I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read the book yet, either, so I'm curious: are the criticisms justified? Is Tim Burton guilty of whitewashing? 

I haven't read the books either, though the discussions around diversity in this film don't seem to reference any specific omitted characters.

As far as the film itself goes, the bulk of the cast are the residents of an isolated Welsh orphanage from the 1940s, so purely on those terms I wouldn't say it's out of bounds to depict them as white.  As I joked in my original post, there's nothing about Jackson's character that says he could or couldn't be black, so Burton's rather tone-deaf comments about when it's required or whatever really don't say much.  Burton is without a doubt not a filmmaker who has any particular interest in diversity, as his filmography amply indicates -- one assumes he was born and continues to live in a mostly white social environment, that's reflected in his artistic vision, and he's fine with it.  Whether that makes you not want to see his films is ultimately for each individual decide.

[ZoqFotPik]

5 hours ago, jcin617 said:

Yeah I didn't quite follow how his grandfather would be alive again just because they killed Baron a few months earlier in 2016 - the Baron and his accomplice that killed his grandfather were there far earlier in their own respective time frames, plus there should have been another Jake back home too.

I agree, the time travel really didn't make much sense. However, this is the way I understood it:

1. If you enter a time loop and it doesn't reset, then you are stuck in that time period.

2. The Blackpool loop took place a few months before the beginning of the film, so Abe was still alive.

3. When they killed Baron and collapsed the loop time moved forward from that point, so Baron was dead and Abe was still alive.

4. There only seems to be one of everyone.

What I want to know is how Jacob got back from Blackpool with no money and no passport. I guess he could have called Abe for help.

[Sara2009]

On October 1, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

So this film has come under fire for its lack of diversity. I haven't seen it, and I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read the book yet, either, so I'm curious: are the criticisms justified? Is Tim Burton guilty of whitewashing? 

If I recall correctly, all the characters in the book are white.

Tim Burton could have changed that for the film if he had wanted to, though. He apparently made several deviations from the book.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Sara2009

[thuganomics85]

Never read the book series, but Eva Green's presence makes it a must see for me (yes, even 300: Rise of an Empire and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), and she was my favorite part about it.  But the rest of the film was decent; especially for Tim Burton lately; even if I felt like it was a combination of a whole bunch of other works like the X-Men franchise, Peter Pan, etc.  Also, Jake was kind of a dull lead, although I guess it was kind of purpose, since he was basically the normal character (until he discovered his powers), that discovers all the peculiar ones.  The rest of the the kids were good.  In particular, Ella Purnell was very charming and was able to add some dimensions to Emma, despite being mainly a love interest for Jake.

Samuel L. Jackson gave another patent Samuel L. Jackson performance.  Sometimes I wonder if they even write dialogue for him anymore, or they just have "Samuel L. Jackson says something very Samuel L. Jackson-like" in the script.  He was fun at least; rocking the evil Don King look.

All the time travel stuff and loops was confusing, but I tend to just handwave any of that stuff, because trying too hard to figure out tends to just make my head hurt.

And, man, Jake's parents were the worst.  Obviously, the dad got the most focus, but I did crack up over Kim Dickens playing his mom, because between this and her Madison on Fear the Walking Dead, I don't think I'd ever trust her as a mom.

[Bruinsfan]

I feel like this could have been a much better movie if the lead weren't like a younger, less-charismatic Eddie Kaye Thomas. I just couldn't bring myself to care about his passive wet blanket of a character, though Eva Green, Samuel Jackson, and Terence Stamp all engaged my interest whenever they were onscreen.

I didn't recognize Rupert Everett, but man did he look creepy. I assumed that was an intentional makeup job to tip us off about him being one of the monstrous villains until I saw his name in the credits.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Bruinsfan

[Hanahope]

I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would.  Agreed that the time loop stuff was a bit confusing, but I'll hand-wave it.  And yes, how did Jake get back home from Blackwood?  My 12 year old is very interested to read the books, I might too.  My 9 year old was a bit creeped out by the eyeball stuff.

I also didn't quite understand why he had to go through other time loops to get back to 1943.  Couldn't he just go to the loop for 1942 and enter it?  why the travel to California and Tokyo?  Maybe the books explain it better.

So does the time-loop person (Miss. Peregrine, et al., I forget the term they used) also see the Hollows?  If not, how did Miss P know where to shoot the cross-bow (i.e. to hit in the face, not to hit it at all, since that was made clear by the white tape).

[SeanC]

54 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

So does the time-loop person (Miss. Peregrine, et al., I forget the term they used) also see the Hollows?  If not, how did Miss P know where to shoot the cross-bow (i.e. to hit in the face, not to hit it at all, since that was made clear by the white tape).

She can't see them.  The first time the Hollow got in, it got into the house and killed one of the kids.  One assumes that Peregrine was able, in subsequent loops, to identify the exact spot where the Hollow first showed up and got it down to a science how to kill it.

[NYCNJbear06]

As a fan of the books it took me a while to get into the movie as it was SUCH a departure from the original story I fell in love with.  I sat in the theater thinking Ohhhh-Kay this is the direction you are going in.  I went into it thinking they were going to set things up for a trilogy - a movie for each book but it looks like it isn't which might be a good thing given what they did to the movie. 

I haven't been this disappointed with a book to movie translation then the fiasco that the Percy Jackson movies have become. 

Books - A MUST READ

Movie - Wait for on Demand. 

[blueray]

I just watched this with my family (two were my cousins who are 10 and 13). None of us read the books. We were mislead by the trailer into thinking it was a fantasy family movie, nope it was sci-fi horror. I knew that  Tim Berton directed it but wow that was more creepy then I though it would be.  My youngest cousin was creeped out by the eye thing (well we all were).

Anyhow, I did sort of like the movie, but there was a lot of flaws with the time travel. If Jake saved his grandfather from dying, then he never went to England in the first place, therefore none of the events would have happened, basically a time paradox. Putting that aside how would he get back from England to Florida without any ID or money. And I agree with the post above, why would he waste time going everywhere when he could just go to the 1942 loop and be done. This maybe more explained in the books, but the movie only got a quick sentence lol.

And what was with Samual L Jackson's performance. The rest of the cast was actually well acted and seemed to try. Sam basically took the role for money and then was so dumb and ridiculous. Seriously the most dumb vilian I've ever seen. I found myself laughing at that part and it took me out of the movie.

Edited January 2, 2017 by blueray

[Bruinsfan]

To be fair, Jackson wasn't writing his character's lines and actions, he was just stuck performing them.

[Hanahope]

Tbh, the only real good thing about the movie is Eva Green.

[GaT]

I'm watching this movie on HBO right now, & I don't know how it was in theaters, but I can't understand a single thing anybody is saying. The sound is horrible, & all the voices are muted. Every now & then it suddenly gets loud, but then people start talking & I once again can barely hear them. Did anybody else have this problem?

[Bruinsfan]

I liked Terrence Stamp and the little girl with the leviathan mouth on the back of her head, too.