Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Post-release)
- Thread starter ultraman
- Start date
JD
Master Member
I was worried this would be too much a Tim Burton movie. Fortunately, while there are plenty of Burton-isms, they weren't as overwhelming as they could've been and certainly not as distracting as they could've been.
I don't know the source material - so, I can't judge it by that. While not a terrible movie, the beginning plodded along, when you're in the theater watching a movie, you shouldn't be thinking "well, this could've cut to make the runtime a bit more palatable" (this may've been my fault having been a little too aware of the runtime). The ending flew by - which was a good thing, because the ending was a mess. From what I've read, there's a bit of a departure from the book - while it's a big thing physically, it's not a huge plot point and just a terrible decision that took me out of the movie... not that this was the only thing that sunk the ending for me.
I expected a bit more from Asa Butterfield - he just seemed to phone in or miss some parts - again, not all around terrible, but there were some part of his acting that missed. The kid actors all seemed solid. Sam Jackson was Sam Jackson, but not in a way that took me out of the movie (like he generally does nowadays). Chris O'Dowd didn't do much, but what he did - he did well.
I don't know the source material - so, I can't judge it by that. While not a terrible movie, the beginning plodded along, when you're in the theater watching a movie, you shouldn't be thinking "well, this could've cut to make the runtime a bit more palatable" (this may've been my fault having been a little too aware of the runtime). The ending flew by - which was a good thing, because the ending was a mess. From what I've read, there's a bit of a departure from the book - while it's a big thing physically, it's not a huge plot point and just a terrible decision that took me out of the movie... not that this was the only thing that sunk the ending for me.
I expected a bit more from Asa Butterfield - he just seemed to phone in or miss some parts - again, not all around terrible, but there were some part of his acting that missed. The kid actors all seemed solid. Sam Jackson was Sam Jackson, but not in a way that took me out of the movie (like he generally does nowadays). Chris O'Dowd didn't do much, but what he did - he did well.
When I saw the commercial all i could think of is this place looks a lot like where they'd recruit X-Men. At least Burton didn't go over the top with this one, he's been getting a bit out there in some of his stuff lately. This strikes me as the kind of odd movie my folks would like.
Two thoughts from me. First, if you've never read the book, then you might have a little trouble catching up as to what the heck is going on from the beginning, it takes a bit for pieces to fall into place to make sense of the timeline, and what's going on. That said, once it gets going towards the middle, it is enjoyable from that standpoint.
If you HAVE read the book, you're going to be a little irked at the changes and deviation from the book. As it's "based upon the book", obviously there will be liberties taken, and things changed for better or worse. I just felt after reading the book last night, and then watching it today, that it was more worse than better. It isn't to say it's horrible, but there's something to be said when there's a successful book or series and then the movies stray far enough that it turns off the people that went and watched it more than it excites them. I mean, characters are changed in their roles, other characters like Miss Peregrine herself being different from what the book portrays her as, as is the doctor (though they give it an explanation later in the movie to explain that appearance), a completely different approach in the showdown, and things like that. And most of these little things didn't need to be changed for the movie's sake, so it's peculiar as to why they did (see what I did there?).
If you've read the book, go into it knowing that it's similar, and you should still find some enjoyment, and maybe even more so than other people that don't know the backstory from the reading. If you haven't, try to keep up, and you'll need to pay attention to piece together the timeline of what happened and so on, but you should be fine to enjoy it too.
I'm not sure it was successful enough to warrant venturing towards the follow-up novels, which is kind of a shame, because the way the first book left off, I am looking forward to the next one, and it's one of those series that even with the tweaks in the film, I always would enjoy seeing it to the end. (Then again, I also thought they should take and make all the Dirk Pitt novels into movies too, because I enjoyed reading them all for what they were, and actually liked watching Sahara lol)
If you HAVE read the book, you're going to be a little irked at the changes and deviation from the book. As it's "based upon the book", obviously there will be liberties taken, and things changed for better or worse. I just felt after reading the book last night, and then watching it today, that it was more worse than better. It isn't to say it's horrible, but there's something to be said when there's a successful book or series and then the movies stray far enough that it turns off the people that went and watched it more than it excites them. I mean, characters are changed in their roles, other characters like Miss Peregrine herself being different from what the book portrays her as, as is the doctor (though they give it an explanation later in the movie to explain that appearance), a completely different approach in the showdown, and things like that. And most of these little things didn't need to be changed for the movie's sake, so it's peculiar as to why they did (see what I did there?).
If you've read the book, go into it knowing that it's similar, and you should still find some enjoyment, and maybe even more so than other people that don't know the backstory from the reading. If you haven't, try to keep up, and you'll need to pay attention to piece together the timeline of what happened and so on, but you should be fine to enjoy it too.
I'm not sure it was successful enough to warrant venturing towards the follow-up novels, which is kind of a shame, because the way the first book left off, I am looking forward to the next one, and it's one of those series that even with the tweaks in the film, I always would enjoy seeing it to the end. (Then again, I also thought they should take and make all the Dirk Pitt novels into movies too, because I enjoyed reading them all for what they were, and actually liked watching Sahara lol)
Similar threads
