Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Harry Potter and the Groundhog Day (in 3D).

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 24, 2016

Is there still magic in the cinematic universe after the end of the Harry Potter franchise? Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children would seem to be a fitting substitute, at least on a surface level, since it involves a gaggle of “gifted” youths whose special powers have made them protectorates of the titular Miss Alma Peregrine (Eva Green), a gifted individual herself who is able to transform into her surname’s bird form. The film’s source book by Ransom Riggs was a fascinating variation on what is called an “epistolary novel,” with (in this case) vintage photographs taking the place of “found” objects like letters and memos. It gave the book a really distinctive identity that would seem to play perfectly into the visual aesthetic of director Tim Burton. It’s perhaps a little odd, then, that Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children turns out to be a fairly staid enterprise, at least by typical Burton standards, one that can’t quite meld its Potter-esque (and it might be added X- Men-ish) tendencies with what might be called a certain Groundhog Day aspect to the plot mechanics. The film is certainly entertaining, but it by and large fails to connect emotionally despite some overt attempts to tug pretty mercilessly at various heartstrings.

Before Miss Peregrine and her brood are introduced, though, the film focuses on teenager Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield), who is forced to check up on his addled grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp), since the elderly man is under the impression some nefarious types are out to get him. Jake shows up at his granddad’s house to find it in disarray, and his grandfather near death in the woods behind the home. Abe grabs Jake’s arm before expiring and emits a seemingly baffling array of information about “loops” and “1943”. Jake is understandably distraught, especially when he sees some kind of spectral monster approaching, an entity his co-worker Shelly (O-lan Jones) can’t see. (Earlier on the way to Abe’s house, both of them had seen an odd looking African American man with glowing white eyes standing in the middle of a fog laden road.)

Jake’s concerned parents Frank (Chris O’Dowd) and Maryann (Kim Dickens) get him into counseling with Dr. Golan (Allison Janney), but are a little freaked out themselves when Golan agrees with Jake that following up on his grandfather’s long running bedtime stories about a home for “peculiar” children in Wales might help the young man reach some closure after the death of his grandfather. Despite some misgivings, Frank, an avid birdwatcher, agrees to take Jake to the isolated island of Cairnholm, a rustic location with just a handful of residents and one solitary hotel.

Jake breaks away from Frank and finds Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children, but not in the state he hoped to. It’s an abandoned wreck, having been bombed by the Luftwaffe and seemingly full of ghosts—including one that seems to think Jake is Abe, at least for a moment. In just one of several unexplained phenomena that the film’s screenplay never adequately explains, it turns out that the kids Jake spots aren’t ghosts but are in fact the very same children Abe grew up with decades ago, sent by Miss Peregrine to fetch Jake back to that aforementioned “loop”, which turns out to be the aformentioned Groundhog Day aspect. In a somewhat baffling plot conceit (especially considering the fact that kids just plop out into 2016 to get Jake), the kids and Miss Peregrine have stayed alive for years by reliving the same day over and over, and it is in fact the day that the home ended up getting bombed (at night). Jane Goldman’s adaptive screenplay struggles mightily to elide some of the illogic that’s already on display, but this is one of many whimsically themed Burton films where preposterous plot mechanics simply need to be accepted in order for the film to make whatever sense it’s able to muster.

Part of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children plays very much in the Potter or X-Men mold, with the kids revealing their powers while under threat from a supernatural force, in this case baddies called Hollows, one of whom is a shapeshifter named Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). But the film also wants to address Jake’s coming of age, including his predictable realization that he’s a “peculiar”, too. A late development involving another mentor (called Ymbrynes) like Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet (Judi Dench), just seems shoehorned into the proceedings for no discernable reason other than to give the always enjoyable Dench a little screentime. The “threat” posed by Barron has a couple of interesting twists, but when he actually shows up to confront Jake, it’s weirdly anti-climactic and nowhere near as scary as it should be, ironically in part because Miss Peregrine is so forceful in the scene.

Adding to the diffused feeling of the film is an overstuffed cast that never devotes sufficient time to either the good guys or the bad guys to ever clearly delineate any of them. There are tons of vignettes sprinkled throughout the film, many involving the kids under Miss Peregrine’s care, and there’s some passing lip service (in more ways than one) to a burgeoning romance between Jake and Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), but events just kind of happen and then the film moves on. There's whimsy galore throughout the film, as in the best Burton offerings, but there’s little organic weaving together of elements that when taken on their own can be quite charming. The result is a film that does have a bit of magic, but one where the tricks seem hackneyed and the misdirection (again, in more ways than one) isn’t especially artful.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with AVC (2D) and MVC (3D) encoded 1080p transfers in 1.85:1 (on separate discs). For my thoughts on the general video presentation and its 2D version in particular, please see our original Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Blu-ray review. This film has decent and at times in fact substantial dimensionality, at least for a post-converted effort, with depth a more consistent feature than "in your face" pop out extravagances. From the first billows of smoke in the credits through to initial shots of Florida, there's appealing depth of field in the frame, with clearly delineated benchmarks that establish spatial relationships. Burton's tendency to often have some kind of foreground object, often off to the side of the frame, also helps to quickly establish depth even when there's not a lot of "wow" factor involved. Curiously, moments that seem "made" for 3D, like some of the eruptions of the monsters or even Miss Peregrine's transformation into her bird form, don't really pop (figuratively or literally) as dramatically as some might hope. Even the underwater scenes have some semblance of depth, perhaps one sign that post-conversions have gotten more technically savvy through the years. One of the few consistent "pop out" elements is the swarm of bees that surround one of the peculiars, and when those insects fly, there may be a tendency to swat them away on the part of some viewers.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that exploits regular surround opportunities in a number of both effects laden sequences as well as simpler techniques like smart placement of ambient environmental sounds. The first appearance of a Hollow at what seems to be the death of Jake's grandfather has good low end as well as bursts of sonic energy when a gun is repeatedly fired. Later, water sounds enter the fray once Jake and his dad make it to the Welsh island. Even the seemingly calm environment of the 1943 time loop has nice elements like breezes ruffling through the side channels when Miss Peregrine takes Jake on a tour of the grounds. Perhaps oddly, then, this film's supposed "climax" is just a little lackluster in terms of showy sound effects. Otherwise, though, everything from dialogue to score sounds clear and damage and distortion free.

Note: As tends to be the case with Fox releases, the audio and subtitle specs are different on the 2D and 3D discs, though in this case the differences are kind of weirdly small.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 3D disc contains no supplements, so the score above reflects that deficit. The 2D Blu-ray also included in this package includes all of the supplements detailed in our Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Blu-ray review.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I haven't been shy about complaining when filmmakers split one book into two films, as has happened repeatedly in the wake of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but I actually wonder if Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children might have benefitted from such an approach. There's a lot to like in this film, but much of it is severely underdeveloped to the point that my hunch is some viewers will end up giving the whole a decided "meh", when perhaps a little more time detailing backstories of both the kids and the villains might have paid greater dividends. The film has neither the pointed darkness nor the bizarre whimsy that has defined some previous Burton efforts, but it at least has some amazing topiaries that could have been sculpted by Edward Scissorhands (yes, that's a joke). With caveats duly noted and with an understanding that technical merits are very strong (including a relatively effective 3D post- conversion), for those desperate for even a little magic in their lives, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children comes Recommended.