Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the latest film from one of my favourite directors, Tim Burton. You might know him from films such as Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman (1989) or Big Eyes (2012) plus much more great films. Miss Peregrine’s stars Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench, Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie and Hayden Keeler-Stone.
This was a film that completely surprised me as I didn’t really have any expectations going in to see it or any thoughts for how it might be. While I had seen a trailer or two in the lead up, I thought that it would be just another kids film and probably one that isn’t for me. But I was completely wrong, this film was exactly what I wanted! It was filled with actors that I love such as Eva Green, Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson and it came from one of my favourite directors too! After watching it all, I was completely blown away by the story and how good everything came together. I really recommend going to see this one if you can, it’s in my view one of the best films of the year.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is all about this kid (well teenager), Jake, who doesn’t really think he’s that special at all, but a lot of other people do and he ends up visiting the home of Miss Peregrine, where there’s a bunch of peculiar children with special gifts. It’s a bit like Professor Xavier’s X-Men school, but a bit different. In this house of the peculiar, they live the same day over and over again by reversing time so that no one can find them and they can be happy there. But all is threatened by a villain and his group of monsters who love to find these time locked places, break into them and eat everyone’s eyes. It’s all scary stuff really! But the story is told in a such a good way and at such a great pace that the film really was a joy to watch.
Tim Burton seemed to me to be the perfect choice for this, he always makes these peculiar looking things in his films and with a bunch of peculiar characters to work with, he really brought everything out wonderfully. He also was able to get all the actors to put in great performances as well. Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Ella Purnell and Hayden Keeler-Stone were all excellent in this film and all were very impressive. Asa Butterfield did great as the lead character and hopefully there’s more from him in the future. Ella Purnell really stood out as well and is very memorable, I do think she has a lot of great things to come in the future after this. Eva Green and Samuel L. Jackson always seem to deliver, so no complaints there at all.
The special effects were all impressive. There’s monsters, ghosts, invisible things, fire effects, ice effects and explosions. There’s all sorts of things in there to keep the audience entertained and in suspense. The music is also very well done too.
The only thing I think is, that it’s possible that due to the dark tone of the film, that it may possibly be a bit too scary for some young kids. There are some gruesome scenes in there to see which might scare a few younger ones. But that was what I loved about this film so much, it didn’t feel toned down at all and even with the gruesome scenes, I loved it even more! The film is also a bit long (2 hours 7 minutes), at the end I thought possibly it was almost about to drag on a bit, but I didn’t mind, it still ended well enough.
There’s not much more I can say about this one. When I love a film, I can’t help but tell people to go and see it. I definitely want to see this one again and I am hoping to add it to my film collection when it comes out on Blu-Ray in a few months. It’s got some great directing from Tim Burton and it’s one of his best films in a long time. Young actors Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell did incredible work with their roles and I hope there’s more to come from these two. There’s also a lot of great moments from Eva Green and Samuel L. Jackson slotted in there and those two are always great anyway. If you only see 5 films at the cinema this year, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children needs to be one of them!
Do go and see this film, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I truly loved it!
