Miss Peregrines Home fo Peculair Children Review

Seren Cho, Writer|October 3, 2016

     *Spoiler Alerts!*

      I have seen many book-to-movie adaptations in my time, but never one quite like this. I have never watched something that is so untrue to the book. I am such a huge fan of the books and I have honestly never been so disappointed. The books are creative and told with originality with a touch of being creepy and haunting. Although the movie is light-hearted it does not have a real plot to it. The trailer is nothing like the actual movie. And who do we owe the pleasure of ruining this wonderful story: the one and only Tim Burton.

     Tim Burton has a special talent for ruining good screenplays (i.e. Alice in Wonderland), and this movie highlighted that talent perfectly. The storytelling of the movie was not the actors’ fault whatsoever, but his. The dialogue was tacky, the movie was completely rushed, and there was almost no plot-line to follow. The characters had no personalities, which means the actors had nothing to work with. He completely wasted Eva Green’s acting capabilities by having her deliver the same lines over and over again. He made one of the most determined and fierce characters in the books the damsel in distress. He brought a dead character back to life. Nothing has ever been more cringe-worthy.

     Burton didn’t do any justice to the actors that were hired. Green’s talent was thrown away. At nineteen, Asa Butterfield is a pretty good actor for his age but this goes against that. What was Samuel L. Jackson doing? I don’t know either. What I’m trying to say is Burton’s directing ruined the intricate characters these actors play.

     Not only does this negatively affect Burton and the actors, but also the author of the books, Ransom Riggs. People are going to hear that this movie was not good, and are not going to want to pick up the books, but the books are so much more than the movie. Riggs has a way of telling a story like no one else does. He created the world beautifully and the characters are so complex. But after this movie, his sales are going to go down, and authors live off of their sales. Not a great time to be Riggs.

     As stated above, I have never watched something so untrue to the book it comes from. So here a few of the things that they changed that were completely unnecessary:

  1. The movie started with a love triangle between Emma, Jake and Olive unlike the books. I screamed in the theater. And then it became a romance between Enoch and Olive and I screamed some more.
  2. In the books, Jake can control the hollows, not just see them. If they put this characteristic into the movie, it would’ve made it so much better.
  3. Bringing Abe back to life. What were they thinking?
  4. And my personal favorite: switching the peculiarities between Emma and Olive. In the books, Emma can conjure fire while Olive can float. The reason why this is the worst thing they could’ve done is because it completely ruins Emma’s character. Book Emma is independent, fiery, and ambitious. Movie Emma is the damsel in distress. She became Movie Ginny Weasley and all my dreams were crushed.

 

     Despite everything I just said, there are a couple of things I think were done right:

  1. The recreation of the loop resetting scene. It was spectacular and my favorite part of the movie.
  2. The special effects were fantastic in my opinion.
  3. Ending the movie on a note where it’s almost impossible to make another movie out of it. If there was another movie, I’d see it, but with the lowest expectations you could possibly imagine. Fortunately, the movie ended with practically nothing to make another movie with. So, hooray!

 

     In conclusion, I still want to say that you should go see the movie. It’s entertaining, fun and enjoyable. But for the people who have read the books: be prepared to be disappointed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.