Despite Eva Green’s exciting presence at the front of
its advertising, the film focuses instead on a completely boring Asa
Butterfield as Jake, a bored eccentric teenager who starts to believe his
grandfather’s, played by Terence Stamp, fantastic stories of a youth spent with
supernaturally-gifted children might be true. Maybe it was the giant monster
who just showed up at Grandpa’s house that sold it. Nobody believes him, but he
convinces his dad (Chris O’Dowd) to take him to the house in Wales where these
children – and their guardian, Miss Peregrine (Green) – are said to have lived,
and may yet still.
Jake finds that he can still visit the house, the
children, and the guardian, by way of a time loop that takes him back to the
1940s. the war was just starting, and the house was on the night of
destruction. The children and Miss Peregrine know this. She has the power to
move time back, which she’s done every night at 9:00 for decades. Wait any
longer and a bomb will destroy their home. Move permanently into the present,
into Jake's time, and their age will catch up with them. They’ve been living
inside of a day for over seventy years. They never age. They never leave. They’re
trapped and yet saved.
Nye noted, “The film’s more formulaic latter half – a
threat, a kidnapping, a mission, a battle – depends on the pure strangeness of
its particulars, but this first half is genuinely lovely. Burton doesn’t make
the house into a saccharine gloss on 1940s nostalgia. He trusts the nature of
the story will bring all the sentiment he needs, and focuses instead on the routine
the house goes through. There’s a squirrel that will fall each day, a call that
must be answered with a mix of reverence and nonchalance. Burton enjoys their
play, especially the way their “peculiarities” embolden them.” One girl must be
secured to the ground or she’ll float away. One boy is invisible. Another girl
has great strength. Another boy is filled with bees. They’re not exactly the X-Men,
but their talents extend far enough beyond the normal to reflect the curiosity of
escape. Moreover, the house becomes reflective of the respect many young people
feel towards their grandparents, and their secret desire to have lived in such
a time.
Burton and screenwriter Jane Goldman (best known for
co-writing “X-Men: First Class”), adapted Ransom Riggs’ novel, thankfully avoiding
idealizing the war, the worst possible traps. Nye said, “Each night when the
bombers fly overhead, they’re a genuine, titanic threat, and there’s no
magnificent army to save them should Miss Peregrine fail to reset the clock.” The
kids are not so powerful to survive or deflect such a weapon. This avoidance
eventually takes the form of pure fantasy, including reanimated skeletons
fighting a half-dozen monsters, at this point you’re either having fun with the
eccentricities or are too bored to care, but the war forever shows as a catastrophe.
There’s no suggestion that the children might be able to save the world, even
by inevitably defeating the fantastical threat in front of them (in the form of
an ever-exaggerated Samuel L. Jackson). They can do a little, and that’s
enough.
Nye noted, “Jackson is hardly alone in his
over-emphatic performance style, and it’s right that Eva Green should be given
a suitably flamboyant nemesis. While the film unfortunately pushes her towards
the background as the plot gets moving, she makes as powerful an impression as
ever in the first half, her arched eyebrow alone contrasting nicely with her
panic when any matter escape her ability to master it.” The other kids don’t charge
much better than Butterfield, sadly. Burton doesn’t seem able to inspire their
imaginations past a type of proper English diction to communicate the plot and
their role in it.
Nye mentioned, “Burton has been trying to overcome his
decreasing facility with actors for the better part of the past decade by
increasing his focus on everything surrounding them, and this is the first time
it’s truly paid off. Maybe it’s the new collaboration with production designer
Gavin Bocquet after three straight runs with Rick Heinrichs. Bocquet’s sets
have a sort of efficiency to them that disregards much of the “Tim Burton
filter” that has been placed over those more recent films. The absence of that
familiar “look” (which does crop up in two truly horrific re-animating scenes I
will not spoil) emphasizes Burton’s perspective through the camera, reminding
us that the iconic power of Edward Scissorhands came as much from how Burton framed
his suburban neighborhood as what color the houses were painted.” While we’ve had
no shortage of Tim Burton films over the years, this is the first in some time
that’s felt as distinct.
My sister had recommended this movie to me, so I
checked this out a few years ago. I didn’t mind it at all, but thought it was a
nice film. Check it out on Disney+ because I think people will enjoy it just
fine. I don’t see anything in here that is bad, besides the fact that this film
may be a copy or rip-off of the X-Men, but it’s not atrocious. If you didn’t
like the previous Tim Burton films before, check this out and you’ll like it.
Alright, everyone, we have reached the end of “Samuel
L. Jackson Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed this month and decided to check out
the films I recommended. Sorry for posting this late as I ended up falling
asleep some time after I came home from work.
Why, is next month February? Do you know what that
means? I’m going to be doing the next “Black History Movie Month.” Stay tuned
next month to see what I will review.
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