Movie Review: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Hello readers,

I am back again with another review on the anticipated Tim Burton's film, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Since the film came out today in Singapore, I will try my best not to giveaway the whole plot but only the synopsis.

Based on the novel by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine is a story which involves time. It starts with the death of Jake's grandfather and later how he figured he should visit Wales where there is a house that homed strange and peculiar children. Jake then discovered lots of things he never knew about himself and also how he was wrong about his grandfather who always told stories when he was very young. In the house with peculiar children, they are then protected by Miss Peregrine, who devoted herself in protecting them from the Hollows and Wights and has an ability to turned into peregrine falcon.

While Miss Peregrine provides a rich and colourful world of peculiarities and danger, its storyline somehow bore me at the beginning. The pace at the beginning was rather slow and sometimes loses focus, especially how the dialogues were draggy. The story in fact for me, begins when Jake visits Wales with his father and the whole mystery, the surroundings and buildings amazed me. I like the locations used in Miss Peregrine which make the film rather breathtaking and so does the visual effects used especially the stop-motion animation, something that is familiar to Tim Burton's audience.

Miss Peregrine build up lots of emotions as the story progresses and I couldn't help but to feel the sense of sadness and the emptiness. I remembered feeling that way when it comes to the scene between Jake and Emma and I think that both Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell were brilliant in the film, though they can actually try to bring out more feelings and captured that mood. Eva Green, as usual, was amazing as Miss Peregrine and in fact brought me tears when her character supposedly sacrificed herself to save her children, even mean having to leave them. I almost forget to mentioned that the opening of the film was fantastic, being able to captured the feels of the novel itself (the photos, designs and its music).

In conclusion, Miss Peregrine was quite an enjoyable film, particularly I liked the skeletons fighting – truly Tim Burton-ish. Anyone who is a fan of Tim Burton should really give this film a watch and enjoy the beautiful landscapes and the whole peculiarities. While the film was fun and adventurous, I was thinking the story could be a lot more better since the information provided was sparse and a little out of focus at times.

Ratings: 6/10

P.S. Florence + The Machine's Wish That You Were Here is a beautifully written song and it well captured the whole Miss Peregrine, especially for Emma and Jake. If you haven't listen to the song, you should try to give it a listen and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.