Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Director: Tim Burton
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 2.0
Mildly troubled Jake (Asa Butterfield) learns from granddad Abe (Terence Stamp) about a magical boarding school (in Wales) run by a certain Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) that's 'lost in time,' so he convinces his shrink and Dad (Chris O'Dowd) to visit the place - while there, he hits his head, meets freaks with special abilities (Ella Purnell's Emma can float and blow wind, Finlay MacMillan's Enoch can animate objects, etc.) and uncovers a plot by lanky mutants named hollowgasts to eat as many eyeballs as they can. There's a Field of Dreams-level of psychological unhealthiness to this story (based on a young adult book series by Ransom Riggs) that's concerning - the Peregrine clan 'story' is concocted to mentally mask the horrors of WWII - and the various plot devices (particularly the creation of "time loops") fall apart upon further examination (wouldn't their memories erase too? couldn't they develop a plan to flee the house and not get bombed?). Burton only truly gets excited when he can create stab-happy dolls and unleash Harryhausen-type skeletons - other characters get dropped when they're no longer 'necessary' (O'Dowd, Dame Dench).
