How are you?
As some of you may know, the Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children movie came out on September 30th. It's safe to say it is being talked about in the book community a lot. Some people all ready have their reviews out as they were invited to previews of the movie. Although I wasn't invited to see the movie early, I was lucky enough to go to a preview screening at my local cinema as part of a charitable event late on September 29th. It was one of the best decisions I have made. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and am 100% going to see it again. I have never reviewed a movie before but I thought that this would be a good place to start. The layout will be similar to my Book Reviews: non-spoiler thoughts,poster review, plot, character chat, differences from the book and opinions. If you want to read my Book Review of Miss Peregrines, click here.
Disclaimer
Just a quick disclaimer- in no way, shape or form am I saying that I know better than the people who made this movie. I am talking about as a book-movie adaptation, I am not trying to critique the cast and crew and say I know better because I don't.Also this review contains spoilers for the books as well as the movie so if you haven't read the books I would advise you don't read this review.
Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children Movie Review- Contains Spoilers
Non-Spoiler Thoughts
I gave Miss Peregrines 4/5 stars as a movie and for accuracy I gave it 3.5/5 stars. There were a lot of changes from the book, some of which enhanced the story, others which made no sense and didn't add to the story. I went into this movie with high expectations and left feeling that most of my expectations had been met.When I heard this was going to be a movie, TBH I thought here we go again, another failed book-movie adaptation. However once I heard that Tim Burton was going to be directing it, I immediately changed my opinion. I knew that this story was the perfect story for Tim Burton to turn into a movie. Then I saw who the cast were and I got thoroughly excited. We had the perfect director and cast for this fantastically spooky story.
Poster Review
I really like the poster as it shows you all of the peculiar children and Miss Peregrine protecting them. I think it links really nicely to the theme of the story.
Plot
The first three quarters of the movie follow the plot of the book so I am going to explain the last quarter of the film as I am assuming most people who have seen the movie have read the books.
So in the last quarter of the movie, the Peculiar children and Jacob have had to leave their loop in 1943 and are escaping to a loop in 2016 via a new loop. They arrive at Blackpool in 1943 and go through an abandoned ghost train ride on the pier. They are then transported to 2016 Blackpool in January. Jacob, Emma and the rest of the Peculiar children head over to were the Baron and the rest of the Hollows are keeping Miss Peregrine captive. They threaten the Baron and start a fight, which takes place on the pier. Enoch has brought back all the dead skeletons on the ship they used to travel from Wales and are now using them as an army. This is the scene where we see Tim Burton's cameo. Somehow the Peculiar children win and kill all the full blown Hollows. They then have to defeat the Hollows that look like people. We have a scene were chaos rains and Olive gets frozen. Emma uses her power to hold back the Baron but runs out of air, while this is happening Jacob is trying to free Miss Peregrine and the rest of the captured carers. The Baron slips in and transforms into Jacob. Emma and Enoch burst in and have to confront to Jacobs. They only find out that the Baron is Jacob when he reacts to being picked up by another Hollow and having his eyes eaten. Jacob frees Miss Peregrine but she is injured. The Peculiars head back to 1943 while Jacob stays in 2016. He travels back to Florida and finds his grandfather alive, who then persuades Jacob to go and find the Peculiar children. After some travelling he finds them. When he meets Emma, he tells her his story but she stops him and kisses him. From Blackpool Tower Miss Peregrine watches as they sail of on their adventures.
Character Chat
I am going to talk about 4 characters from the movie and they are Jacob "Jake" Portman, Emma Bloom, Miss Peregrine and The Baron.
Jacob "Jake" Portman
Asa Butterfield portrayed Jake in the movie. I think that he was the perfect person to play Jacob as this is what I imagined Jacob would look like when I read the books. I feel like in the movie we got to see more of Jacob's excitement about discovering the world of the peculiar's. I felt like I could relate to Jacob a bit more in movie than in the book as the movie was set in 2016. There were lots of moments when you could tell that Jacob was an outsider and Asa did these scenes perfectly. I also loved how protective Jacob was of the children and you could tell that Asa had put a lot of effort into these scenes. I was very happy with his performance as Jacob and I really loved his on screen relationship with his dad. Chris O'Dowd (who played Jacob's father) and Asa's scenes were so funny, especially the scene were they see Miss Peregrine and Jacob starts shouting to her. I also loved his on screen relationship with his grandfather and Emma, they were very realistic scenes.
Ella Purnell portrayed Emma Bloom in the movie. I had never heard of Ella Purnell before the movie so I was looking forward to seeing her performance. Most of you will know that Emma and Olive's powers were swapped, which is something I go into more detail later. I felt as though Emma in the movie didn't care when Abe died, but in the book she gets very upset. I also imagined Emma to be this fiery character and in the movie I felt as though she was too nice. Maybe this was something to do with the power swap, but I didn't like Emma as much in the movie as I did in the books. I still think that Ella was a fantastic Emma and I loved her on screen relationship with Asa as Jake.
Eva Green portrayed Miss Peregrine in the movie. I know that Eva and Tim have worked together before and was really happy when I heard she had been cast as Miss Peregrine. She was fantastic as Miss Peregrine, defiantly more bad-ass than in the books but it's something I preferred. I also loved how she made her movements bird-like, I felt like this was a really nice and subtle touch to the character. Miss Peregrine in the movie was defiantly more in control of situations and almost dominated the scenes she was in. You could sense that her character really cared about the children she had to look after. I loved the scene when the Baron invaded the home and she was like "no you listen to me" and totally bossed Baron around.
Samuel L Jackson portrayed The Baron in the movie. I was surprised when I heard they had cast Samuel as The Baron as in the books I felt as though he was a bit of a push over, I was never really scared of him. However, once I saw the movie my opinion changed. The costume and special effects/ costume and make up made The Baron look really scary. I really didn't like the white eyes as they freaked me out a bit. I loved how sassy Samuel made The Baron, I never imagined him as a sassy character but it really worked.
Differences from the book
Obviously when we get a book to movie adaptation, there are bound to be changes. Some changes are for the better and enhance the story, others not so much. Here are some changes from the book to the movie and my opinions. This is in no particular order.
The Hollows eating children's eyes
I thought that this was a good change as it made the Hollows seem more scary. Also the way they ate the eyeballs was horrible. I liked the idea that if you ate enough eyeballs you became more "human"
Emma and Olive's power swap
I personally felt as though this swap was unnecessary. Emma and Olive are two great individuals, why did they need each others powers? Also when I imagined Olive I always saw her as a little girl rather than a teenager. The swap didn't add anything to the story.
Jacob's grandfather never dying
Again, I felt as though this was an odd decision. Abe plays a part in this story but his part is to introduce Jacob to the Peculiars. I felt as though him never dying was a bit of a paradox as if he hadn't died Jacob wouldn't have gone to the island and prevented his death.Blackpool
This was a new addition to the story in which the last quarter of the movie in which Jacob and the Peculiars fought the hollows and one. I personally really liked this scene as it allowed us to see a lot of the Peculiars in a battle type situation. They got to show off their powers which was quite cool. Also Tim Burton had a cameo here, which was a nice touch.Miss Peregrine's Recovery
At the end of the movie we see that the Peculiars have got Miss Peregrine back. This is a big inconsistency with the story of the next book as they spend most of the next book trying to get Miss Peregrine back. I would be interested to see where they take the Hollow City story line from here.Opinions
As I said at the start of my review, I gave Miss Peregrines 4/5 stars as a movie and 3.5/5 stars for accuracy. I have to say that this was one of the best book-movie adaptations I have seen. It kept the main essence of the story which drew fans in while adding some new things. I couldn't have been happier with the cast as they portrayed the characters wonderfully. Yes some of the people they cast weren't the way I pictured them myself but I was still happy with them. I was so happy that Tim Burton directed this movie as he added his Gothic, crazy touches to this amazing story. I loved the humor in this film. There were moments when I laughed out loud which was something I didn't do while reading the book. Like I already mentioned, I especially loved the scene were Jacob and his father arrive in Wales and they see a Peregrine and Jacob starts shouting at it saying "Don't crap on us!". I will be honest, I am interested to see how they go into a second film if they make a second film as I feel like it would be hard to start the Hollow City story with where they left it. Overall I am very happy with this adaptation and I will definitely try and see it again in the cinema, I've also bought the companion book that goes along with the movie and tells you how they made the movie.
Note: all pictures in this post are taken from Google and I do not own them/ take credit for them.
