Movies: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Movies: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Introduction:

If you seen the trailer, you might have been as confused as I am. Is this supposed to be a horror movie? maybe a horror version of Xavier's school for gifted youngsters in the X-men? With creepy characters like the twins who prance around in all whites, and the vampire looking Miss Peregrine who can transform into a peregrine falcon (usually vamps can turn into bats), what exactly is this show about and who is its targeted audience?

First of all, note that this is not a movie made by Marvel but rather the 18th movie directed by Tim Burton. Tim Burton movies include the most whimsical and strange such as "Alice in Wonderland" and "Edward Scissorshands" and he is known for action movies although he did do two Batman movies (not the recent action packed Batman Vs Superman though). So, don't go into this movie expecting to see fire balls, high speed action and fighting all over. So overall, how did this movie do and would it really interest you? Lets break it down and find out....

Storyline 4.5/5

This movie has a very strong storyline aspect to it. It does not rush to introduce you to the world of Peculiar Children and does not immediately tell you everything there is to it from the start. Instead it just follows the life of this boy who is experiencing everything for the first time and learning from people and circumstance around him. You will not have a guru character that knows everything and reveals it all from the start and let everything just play out. 

What this means is that the movie remains interesting and intriguing from the beginning till the end and it does not become stale or expected. New elements are added throughout the movie and better flesh out the entire world that they live in. Also, this movie makes  use of time travel and as for Sci-Fi lovers, the moment that there is time travel you should expect some level of headache trying to understand how everything dives together. Thankfully this movie does not take its time travel aspect to the extreme in attempt to create an over intelligent movie but a fair bit of thinking is required to better appreciate this movie and all in all, it draws the line appropriately.

True to it's storyline focus, it also does not have overpowered characters like you may see in Marvel flicks and this movie becomes more about how everyone works together with their strengths and weaknesses which brings out the storyline flavor more. It is also rare to have a storyline based movie whereby it does not dive into a section of pure story progression that can lull you to sleep, you know, those parts where they just keep droning on and on and on and it gets so boring, yea this movie doesn't have that which is great.

Character 4/5

Characters are pretty interesting, mostly are distinct and true to the style of the movie, you will not see overpowered characters and everyone knows their abilities but in a simplistic way not the action and destroy everything kind of way. Weak abilities are clear and attempts to use the weak abilities in a fight is, true to its nature, a clear cut joke. 

Very believable and good acting from the actors and the plus point is this movie also does not get too serious. With Samuel L Jackson in as the bad guy, you will tend to enjoy the bad guy's presence a bit too much. 

There are one or two scenes where the characters do strangely weird things but overall, all the characters are pretty interesting and the movie allowed the full movie play time to really show the uniqueness of the characters.

Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography is not one that would stand high above any Marvel movie, but that being said, there is still some good emphasis on stop time and some fun action scenes. It does better then even some movies but just did not do anything to get to the next level.

Music 4/5

Music is pretty good and it is placed in a way that really adds to the entire movie feel. It is light hearted at the appropriate moments and does not overpower what is happening on the screen.

Spectacle 4/5

As a movie that focuses a lot of the storyline, this is truly where the movie managed to excel throughout the entire length of the movie with its good and fluid pace. It does not waste time attempting to use the peculiar powers to make a action movie but intelligently crafts in the powers into the storyline and making everything character and ability relevant in the long run. It also has the advantage of introducing a new world, not that of X-men, but rather peculiar and the powers are not disgustingly heroic but all seems to have some set backs.


Overall

Storyline: 4.5 (Main focus of this movie, and it is kept entertaining all the way to the end)
Character: 4 (Many characters, all with their moments and uniqueness that entertains well)
Cinematography: 4 (It's not an action flick, but the scenes are generally done in a impactful way)
Music: 4 (Music is definitely there and supports the immersion of the movie.)
Spectacle: 4 (Movie has a great focus on the storyline and does it very very well. It does not go too heavy into the action scenes and instead just keeps the story fluid and moving along very well)

Overall: 4.1 (If you are a fan of film or a fan of Tim Burton, this movie is no question a movie you should see with its very strong storyline that will keep your mind active all the way from the start to the end. It's long movie length only adds to its value instead of seeming too draggy. Just do not go in expecting to see an action flick cause you can probably say that this is about 10% of a Marvel movie)