A Geeky Dad's Movie Guide: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

in #movie-review8 years ago (edited)

As I mentioned in the prequel to this series, I will be viewing these movies through the lens of a dad watching a movie next to his kids. My opinion might be very different if I saw the films alone or with other adults.

Today I present: "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children".


Before I give my opinion of what "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" is... I would like to begin with what it isn't.

  1. It is not a complete waste of an adult's time if they take their kids to see it.
  2. It is not for very young children (I'd say 10 and up. My son is 11 and had to cover his eyes 3 times. You may want to do a little research if you aren't sure.).
  3. It is not a movie that you can only enjoy if you have read the books (I have not read them).
  4. It is not a typical Tim Burton movie.

The fourth point is the most important one. I am a fan of Tim Burton's movies. In fact, I didn't realize how much of a fan I truly was until I sat down to write this piece. I have seen and enjoyed 16 of the 19 movies he has written or directed (I never saw Sweeney Todd, Big Eyes or Frankenweenie). Obviously some of these I liked morer than others, but I generally enjoy his trademark style with unique visuals and dream-like (or nightmare-like) aesthetics.



The Nightmare Before Christmas
Touchstone Pictures and Skellington Productions Inc

Even though I appreciate Burton's style tremendously, it would have been a huge mistake if he used it in this film. Don't worry, if you are a huge fan of his, he does throw you a bone or two with some really cool looking creatures, but he could not use it throughout the entire movie. The movie needs to seem real. It needs to make kids think that there really could be a peculiar school just on the other side of those mysterious looking tress they pass by every day. If Burton had used his fantastical style, that would have been lost.

That being said, it still is a fantasy movie made for children. If "suspension of disbelief" is a big problem for you, you will not like this movie. You almost have to check your brain at the door and just enjoy the fun ride. If you think too much, you will find far too many plot holes. For example, if the kids all have powers, why do they only really use them in the final battle scene? I actually asked my son this question after the movie. He responded, "Dad if they used them early, there would have been no movie. What fun is that?" Great point! If you can just think like a kid for 120 minutes, you can have a great time during this movie.



Can you think like a child for 120 minutes?

Without giving away any spoilers, the movie centers around Jake, a boy who has grown up listening to his grandfather's amazing stories of "Peculiar Children". Jake suffers a terrible and mysterious loss. He uses his apparent depression as an excuse to travel to Wales in order to solve the mystery. Once there he meets the Peculiar Children... and that is all I will say about the plot.

Like most kids movies, there is an action sequence at the very beginning in order to get the kids to settle down. This movie did this particularly well. The action was quick, but it was effective. It gave my son a reason to sit through the "boring part" (or what we adults refer to as "the plot"). And it wasn't so ridiculous that I rolled my eyes. The effects were excellent and I really enjoyed it.

The next 30 minutes of the movie are slow, but necessary. If a kids' movie isn't going to be completely mindless, the creators need to risk that kids will sit still for 30 minutes so a real story can be told. "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" takes this risk and it pays off. You learn just enough about all the characters to care if they live or die. Honestly, in a kids' movie with this many characters, that's really the best you can hope for. Is there deep character development? No. Would my son be upset if any character died? Yes. That is good enough for me. In fact, after the movie, we asked which character was his favorite. He listed his top four... but the list kept changing on the ride home. So he was able to rattle off at least eight characters he liked. I liked them too.




As far as the acting goes, no one is going to win an Oscar for their performance in this film. But no one was really annoying either. The villains over acted (because they are bad guys in a kids movie duh!) and the heroes laid it on a little too thick, but sometimes kids need these over the top performances to connect with movies. Good actors in children's movies find a way to give the kids what they crave without completely turning off the parents. This film succeeded in this area as well.

Now the big question: was the movie fun? Yes it was. The special effects are brilliant. One of the reasons I suggested that only older children see this movie is directly because of the realistic special effects. There honestly isn't very much action, so the movie needs to keep the audience entertained by showing "cool stuff". There are plenty of scenes of the kids using their "Pecularity" for every day tasks. The tasks themselves of course are boring. However, if you spice it up with a floating girl, all of a sudden it's worth paying attention to. There is of course an epic battle scene at the end. The scene is exciting... even if it is full of plot holes.



The battle is also quite long. Too often, the writers of children's movies just slap on a quick formulaic battle at the end of the movie so they can check that off of their lists of tasks that must be completed. However, this one lasted just long enough to make my son say "it was worth sitting through all of that boring stuff."

I am not going to give a rating number or a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". There will be no tomatoes here. Instead, I give you this:

Number of times I fell asleep: 0
Number of eye rolls: 0
Number of face palms: 0
Number off times my kids asked to go to the bathroom or get food out of sheer boredom: 0
Number of times I checked steemit: 0
Number of times I said "That's ridiculous": 3
Did my kids like it: Yes
Would I see it without my kids: Probably not... but maybe

All images not cited below the image were from "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" from Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Chernin Entertainment and Scope Pictures

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Thanks fo sharing your views. I have not seen all Burton movies, but generally i am not fond of his style. I just have an aversion towards too cartoonish style directors. In my review blog i go more towards the artistic and emotional.

I have read your blog. You do an excellent job! I am coming at this from a little different angle. I really enjoy movies but I wanted to take a look at ones I probably wouldn't see without my kids. These are meant to be a little bit more "fluff" as opposed to yours were are excellent and more serious.

And I will be the first to salute your decision. The more different ways to do it the merrier. It is all about using your imagination and fitting it with your skills .-)

And by the way .. Yes, Han did shoot first :-) ... i have a restored 1080p version of the original 1977 cut. It is just awesome .-) ... Lucas keeps screwing with the originals and it is atrocious

Yes!!! The "de specialized" edition is great!

thank you for sharing this - been waiting from your last post
I will now go and take my daughter to it as she loves Tim Burton films.
Would you say it is little like - Lemmony Snicket series of Unfortunate Events? with Jim Carey - just some of the trailers I've seen reminded me of it a little.
Thanks

Similar style for sure. I hope she enjoys it... and you to (but probably not as much as she does)

All I needed to know that it was not for kids under 10. We thought about this movie but wasn't sure about the content. Nice current movie review. Following.

I'm overly cautious when it comes to scary stuff. Me and both my kids are scaredy cats... I don't want to risk nightmares lol. My son is 11 and he was a bit scared (just enough to be exciting) My 9 year old daughter would have had trouble.

Agreed. My daughters are 7 and 8. I have been carefully curating their movie experiences. Meaning, we watch the movies that I saw when I was a kid. They don't watch avengers. We start with christopher reeve and superman. That is how I want to introduce them to film. Like, instead of watching Miss Peregrines, we decided to watch Indiana Last Crusade. Of course they loved the first two but were scared in some parts. Like in the last part of Ark, and Onum shiba Onum shiba heart pulling in Temple of doom. The worst one that backfired on me was when I showed them Gremlins last year. Dude, they couldn't go anywhere around the house alone at night after that one. Again, nice review, cheers.

I showed my son an version of raiders of the lost arc that I had edited when he was really little. Still loves it. They loved last crusade as well. We skipped temple of doom.

So you just took out the end part where they melted/exploded? Hey, doom was so awesome. Short Round man!

I edited out the scene where marion runs into the skeleton in the tomb, the face melting, the propeller scene and a little swearing. Couldn't do the heart scene in doom.

I'm a fan of Burton's but I just don't know if I could sit through this movie....on purpose...paying money. LOL
I think you made an excellent review though. My kids are grown so I don't have the joy of watching their face light up when they are truly enjoying something anymore.

I'm glad you got the point of this. There is no way my wife and I would have spent TIME (which is more valuable than money when you have kids lol) on this. I might have watched it for free on satellite... maybe. I'm going to add that to my list at the end something like pay full price:no, baragin matinee: no, rent:no, see for free: maybe

I have not seen Sweeney Todd

Good. I don't recommend it . Like, at all.
Probably one of the goriest movies out there. Haha
Awesome review, can't wait to see it!

Thanks! I missed that one for a reason. If you don't have kids, I'd wait for video for this.

Yeah, it was so screwed up.
I have one, but he is way too young to enjoy it. Haha

I have also written a review of this. I saw it without kids.. ha ha!

I just read it. Well done. 61%... I can agree with that.

I'v just gone and read your review too - and thats definately made up my mind to take my daughter this weekend, I know she will love it, its 'right-up her street' this type of movie. Thanks