Book to Movie: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Wow! When was the last time I did one of these? I need to start watching more films. Anywho...

The following review will have *SPOILERS.*

Director Tim Burton
Producers Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping
Screenplay Jane Goldman
Cast Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O'Dowd, Ella Purnell, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, and Samuel L. Jackson

My thoughts: So...obviously I did not see this film in the movie theater.  Instead, I ended up renting it when it was finally available at our local Redbox. I was super excited to see this movie because I greatly enjoyed reading the book a few years back. I even read the manga version a couple months ago to help me remember what the plot was about. Did it help? Yes. Did I end up liking the film? Yeah...but it wasn't the greatest.


Let's begin on a few points that I appreciated from the film. First, the cinematography was quite lovely. I liked the vibrant and dark colors of the settings and costumes, I liked how each of the actors portrayed the characters, and I loved the whole Tim Burton vibe behind everything. Next, though the acting was a little bad in the beginning (The whole grandpa dying was not believable. I actually giggled and rolled my eyes), the acting got a lot better. I especially loved Eva Green's portrayal of Miss Peregrine. When I read the book, I imagined Miss Peregrine to be a plain, somewhat aged woman who only watched the children. But in the film, Miss Peregrine was a bad ass who was strict with everything happening on time. Plus, I always loved Eva Green. She is so beautiful! Another thing I highly enjoyed from the film was how the Hollowgast were presented. I have no idea how I imagined these creatures to be, but I was not expecting them to be like the ones in the film. They were huge and creepy! Same thing with the Wights. Their white glowing eyes were spooky. I will always remember that scene of the Wights having an eye feast. *shudder*

How does the film compare to the book? 

The film had many changes from the book. Some of them I liked, while others had me scratching my head. The first change that I quickly noticed was the grandfather's dying words to Jacob. In the book, the grandfather's death was a major part that drove Jacob to do the things he did. In the film, it was not as impactful. Next, Jacob's father in the film was uncaring. He was too obsessed about his birds and didn't care about creating a bond with his son. In the book, the father started off being distant with Jacob but they both slowly began to get closer as the plot progressed. Another change from the book, was the switch in powers between Emma and Olive. Emma was given Olive's power of air and Emma's fire power was given to Olive. What I liked about it was how Tim Burton was able to create the whimsical feel with Emma floating about and blowing the water out of the way. What I didn't like was how Emma's fiery/fiesty character was gone. Emma's fire power in the book made her the character I loved to read about.

Now another change that I was so glad that happened was the romance between Jacob and Emma. In the book, I thought their romance was gross. Emma was in love with Jacob's grandfather and I thought it was sickening that her and Jacob were getting together. In the film, however, Emma was not too attached to the grandfather. Yes, she had feelings for him but she was past all the hurt. It was not weird when the spark began to happen between her and Jacob. The feeling of "incest" was not as strong in the film versus in the book. The final change that I'll mention (there were many others but my review would be too long), was the ending. WTF?!  I was so confused when the battle between the peculiars and the Wights/Hollowgast began. Because I have not read the other books in the series, I thought that somehow Tim Burton decided to squeeze the other books in the last 30 minutes of the film. I was so confused that I was not able to appreciate the ending. Instead, I found myself searching on my phone to see what the heck was happening. I soon learned that the ending was changed. Grr! I won't say more about the ending, just in case you have not seen the film, but I did not like it.

*breathe*

Okay...This was not a terrible adaptation of the film. It had its positives and its negatives. I can't expect for every movie adaptation to be faithful to the book but I do expect to like the changes. I rate the film: