The 'defense' I'd use for Tim Burton's return to the world of misfit outsiders in the realm of fantasy (I can almost hear MJ about the break out into "Remember the Time" with a flash-cut to Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, even Sleepy Hollow to a degree), if it does need to be defended (and I think it does slightly), is that this is the director appealing emotionally to the audience and doing it well. Does this mean that every moment is logically sound? No, it does not mean that, so maybe the movie doesn't conform to the old Narrative Triangle where we got the ethos-pathos-logos thing going. But I'd rather have Burton be on fire making a MAJOR work (which I think this is to an extent) bringing his creepy and intentionally deranged visual sense and getting that right, not to mention most of the humor, than to see him slumping all around or relying on CG.
In this story that you certainly have seen before in some form or another (whether it's through seeing some other YA novel turned to the screen or, let's see for comparison, of course X-Men can't be avoided and I'll get back to that, but also Addams Family and, oddly enough, Inception), as a young person discovers through a family connection that there is *another world*. Of course he has known this since he was little - I really enjoy the framing here, though I had to put some thought into this being what the movie actually is like, of a grandpa telling a child a story about his weird little friends with these strange 'abilities' as a bedtime story, as told by Terrence Stamp - but put it out of his mind once it became time for Children to Put Away Childish Things(TM).
But when Grandpa dies due to something rather spooktacular, Jake decides to look into it, and it leads him to Wales where he discovers through a "loop" (like time-wise) the world of Miss Peregrine's Home for Pectuliar Children resides in September of 1943, on the day leading up to when the home will be bombed by enemy fire. So we get to see this host of 'Peculiars' as they're called, and naturally the feeling is that this will be akin to when we get to "Xavier's School" in X-Men - certainly, for some reason (call it writer's intuition, or unintentional homage/the usual thing with YA stories), the dynamic between Jake, Emma (the girl who can fly if not tethered to the ground), a boy with a jealous/angry face all the time who can implant hearts into things and make them move, reminds us of Wolverine/Jean Grey/Cyclops. A little.
But the difference here is that they aren't being trained to fight (then again neither were those at Xavier's school in theory), but are being targeted by dastardly creatures (a scenery-garbage-compactor with Samuel L. Jackson, one of my favorite things about the movie overall), and have to find a way to survive and fight back. So there's a lot to this story, and one of the things I noticed was much more exposition than in other Tim Burton movies; you may get some in Beetlejuice from the 'old times', but only just enough to get you by. Here, it seems like there are a myriad of rules when it comes to these 'loops' and who can see the peculiars and especially in the third act things become complicated. As far as the 'plot' goes, it's often messy, stuffed, even at two hours it's crammed in with information that, if you haven't read the book, I'm sure will leave you questions. It certainly did me. And as one more knock, Asa Butterfield is one note (not altogether terrible, just stiff) as the lead, which leaves it to everyone else to pick up the slack - which, to be fair, many of them can and do. Also, Chris O'Dowd is wasted (such as the parents seem to be in this story).
So why recommend it? Because, especially for the first two thirds, it feels richer in texture, style and in how the actors relate together and the emotional context of things comes out than I've seen in a fantasy film from Burton in a long time. And on its own it works as as a delightful and often dark-for-kids (as it should be) story of overcoming fears and that feeling of being 'different' as a mark against someone. Even in that messy third act where the story hurdles along, there's always something new or exciting visually, a creation or bunch of characters (including an homage to Jason and the Argonauts!) that kept me engaged and entertained. I keep thinking that if I wasn't such a "critic" and enjoyed it as a casual movie-goer I'd like it even more-so. I can't help but see flaws in it, but it doesn't keep me from wanting others to see it and discover it for themselves.
