Member review

Ransom Riggs is a spectacular author- his book 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' has sold millions of copies worldwide- so it's hard to understand why he allowed the production of this odd, clunky, entirely unnecessary film. Fans of the best-selling book series are very unlikely to be as captivated by it as others might be; if you've been terrified by the image of the Wights and the Hollows already captured perfectly by Riggs' words, then you're definitely not going to find these CGI monsters as frightening. The power of Riggs's words is completely lost through these computerised manifestations, while the true horror of this film is how little it pays attention to the material it is based upon. For the first 30-45 minutes, it seems like a fairly loyal adaptation but then it gradually starts to drift off course before crashing into a hedge and burning (one can only dream).

Burton's usual darkly-artistic flair as a director is evident within each scene, and that is the one element that saves this film from being a total washout. Unfortunately, the mystery in the book is left untouched- perhaps Burton sensed this film would not be worthy of a sequel- with everything about the world the characters inhabit being explained away, losing one of the core components of the book series that made them so enjoyable.

A shoe-horned in cameo from master of the arts Samuel L. Jackson, whose considerable acting skills could've been put to much better use than the blank-eyed, blank-everything-basically Barron, does little to improve the quality of the film. The acting overall was obviously not Oscar-worthy but maybe not appalling either. It's the sort of acting one can come to expect now from these empty Hollywood book adaptations. It neither dazzles nor disappoints. It's the theatrical representation of the 'meh' emoji.

Verdict: this film is realms away from the captivating and surreal world of loops, bird women, and strange photographs that Ransom Riggs brought to the public ten years previously, but for all its many faults, there is a small spark of beauty and innocence in it that makes it just about bearable for anybody who has not yet had the privilege of reading, not watching, the exploits of the Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children.