'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' is fairly generic Tim Burton
Tim Burton鈥檚 鈥淢iss聽Peregrine鈥檚 Home for Peculiar Children鈥� is infested with his usual gaggle of creepy-crawlies. Adapted by Jane Goldman from Ransom Riggs's young adult bestseller, it鈥檚 like Burton鈥檚 variation on 鈥淴-Men鈥� 鈥� a movie about mutant children with 鈥減eculiar鈥� powers, including invisibility and weightlessness, and, especially grody, the ability to eat utilizing spiky teeth in the back of one鈥檚 head.
The children are under the aegis of Miss聽Peregrine聽鈥� played with divaesque triumphalism by Eva Green 鈥� who is capable of transforming herself into a falcon. The setting is, for the most part, 1943, where the remote Welsh orphanage housing the 鈥減eculiars鈥� has been bombed to rubble by the Nazis.
Miss聽Peregrine聽has been able so far to preserve in an endless cycle, 鈥淕roundhog Day鈥�-style, the day prior to the fatal bombing by creating 鈥渓oops鈥� in time. But the marauding Barron (Samuel L. Jackson, relishing his badness to the hilt), who survives by plucking out and consuming the eyeballs of the 鈥減eculiars,鈥� is threatening to change all that.
Into this mad mix, traveling back in time from present-day Miami, enters mild-mannered Jacob (Asa Butterfield), whose grandfather (Terence Stamp) warned him of the peculiarities of the peculiars. He eventually discovers his own peculiar gifts and becomes the unlikeliest of heroes.
To me, Burton鈥檚 movies always seem a full grade too grotesque for the whimsical stories he is trying to tell, as if he simply couldn鈥檛 rein in his darkest impulses. At least in 鈥淢iss聽Peregrine,鈥� his ghastliness fits the fable, although, even at its best, it鈥檚 fairly generic Burton. Grade: B- (Rated聽PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril.)
