Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Tim Burton's latest: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, is based on Ransom Rigg's young adult novel of the same name. Seemingly promoted and set up as a family franchise lead-off but don't be fooled, this is as dark, scary and (no pun intended) peculiar as the rest of his oeuvre.

We do, though, follow a young-adult story and see events through the eyes of Jake (Asa Butterfield, convincingly American) and typical young-adult (now a genre in itself) tropes abound; a love story, a 'find yourself' thread, a hidden power etc.

Jake, spoiler alert, is 'peculiar' in the titular sense (basically meaning, like X-Men, he has a weird, non-'superhero' power) as do the rest of Miss Peregrine's titular children's home. Jake is from the present day and stumbles upon the home on behest of his Grandfather who knew the same children during WW2. You see, the home is accessible via a time loop with the children living the same 24 hours in 1943, Groundhog Day-style, to stay safe from 'bad' peculiars who hunt the young (and eat their eyes, classic Burton) in attempts to achieve immortality.

The relations to X-Men are strong and the film's time structure is equally impenetrable. Some plot-holes are baffling and you will be left scratching your noggin for ages afterwards trying to understand the logic behind the time zones and the aforementioned loops.

Look beyond this, though, and this is a thrilling adventure movie. A strong cast, an exciting premise, a great villain (a menacing Samuel L. Jackson) and a detailed story which doesn't attempt to skimp on detail (I imagine those who've read the book will be satisfied at the length of the film.)

There are some frustrating elements: one of the closing battles which takes place on a pier has no threat level and a truly bizarre soundtrack and, like X-Men, some of the characters have pretty redundant abilities and are, therefore, not truly fleshed-out.

However, it's a truly brilliant watch and, if you allow the logic to wash over you (in a world of superhero movies, allowing a little bit of confusing time travel is fine) it's one of the best thrill-rides you'll see in the cinema this year and I, for one, hope it gets the sequel it deserves.

4 stars ****