Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Another best selling teen fantasy novel hits the big screen and thanks to Tim Burton, it's a big success albeit a little strange. The story centers around a boy named Jake (Asa Butterfield), whose grandfather always told him these strange stories. The whole family thought he was a little off and no one put much stock in them, until one day his grandfather is attacked, and Jake sees things that he can't explain. Jake decides the only way to get the answers he seeks is to find out if the stories of Miss Peregrine and her school are real, so with his father's assistance, he travels to Wales to find them, and begins the adventure of a lifetime. Even without Tim Burton's unique twist and strange characters this story is extremely original and more than carries it's weight, but the visual elements certainly help, especially when it comes to bringing in the young audiences. As for the stars, Eva Green is your typical Tim Burton casting job, while she doesn't jump off the pages to the screen as Miss Peregrine, she does fit the role in the way Johnny Deep did in the Chocolate Factory or Michael Keaton did in Beetlejuice. She was an important part of the story, but she wasn't the whole story. The real star of the show to me was Asa Butterfield as Jake. His character does jump off the page directly to screen, as Butterfield gives one hell of a performance. Butterfield has been acting since the rip old age of nine, and almost every role he's had has been a leading role. There's a reason for that, and as with Hugo, The Boy In The Stripped Pajamas, and Ender's Game, he proves why yet again in this film. Miss Peregrine is a terrific book, that honestly shouldn't work well as a film, but when you add Tim Burton and his eccentricities, the experience of Samuel L. Jackson, & the raw talent of Asa Buttefield to the mix, you get a unique and special film, that while not the same as the book, it's just as good in a different kind of way.