If you are fan of visionary director Tim Burton, chances are you know mostly for his distinct visual style, a style he's possessed since his signature debut in the comedy-horror 'Beetlejuice' in 1988. Burton has embraced a Gothic visual modus and macabre atmosphere that has most often made his films more of visual spectacles than films with compelling storytelling. This dark fantasy inspired by Ransom Riggs's best-selling novel series of the same name sees Burton continuing his signature trend with his dazzling visual methodology that manages to outplay it's occasionally clunky script. Written by Jane Goldman, frequent collaborator of director Matthew Vaughn, this film translates it's compelling source material with fine, but occasionally sluggish style-over-substance flick that only succeeds on embracing Burton's typical visual grandeur than coherent storytelling. Enter sixteen-year old Jake (played by Asa Butterfield), a young teen inspired by the extraordinary adventures of his grandfather Abe Portman (played by Terence Stamp) to seek out a mysterious foster family raised by the witch-like Miss Peregrine (played by Eva Green). The family consisted of children gifted with utterly bizarre abilities including a child who can manipulate air and breath underwater, another with an invisible body, one with a monstrous mouth at the back of her head, another with the ability to light things on fire with her bare hands, the list goes in. As the young man is drawn into their unnatural world, he learns the secrets of their family that put their lives in grave danger against mysterious monsters that pray on them.

With Tim Burton operating behind the camera, it is predictable that this strives for bizarre and spooky imagery that immediately hits you with reminiscence of Burton's previous works. The world of the titular character's mysterious habitat is drawn with an authentic 1940s-era production design and spooky imagery of characters with creepy CGI anatomical abnormalities and corpses with eyes hollowed out; just enough bizarre scenery to give elementary-school aged kids to the heebie jeebies. The make-up done on Eva Green's Miss Peregrine to give her a Maleficient-like appearance is pretty nice to look at as well. How Tim Burton's visual heft manages to tower over the storytelling however, comes as the film's prime disappointment. The first hour follows a 'X-Men meets Harry Potter' plot introducing a series of uncanny characters through long, convoluted exposition. In the process, the characters then introduce a time looping element that is should have made the plot more interesting but only adds more needless confusion to the already mind-boggling plot, and it's not until the roughly the hour and a half mark when the story begins to make reasonable sense. At that point, we are granted with our heroes engaging climatic showdown against creepy Slenderman-like creatures followed by a fight against devilish, glowy-eyed Samuel L. Jackson (an odd casting choice) filled with slick special effects and CGI. By the end, it fairly makes up for the sluggish narrative as does the performances. Asa Butterfield does a fine job as the protagonist but it's only disappointing that his character falls short of interest. In the midst of the crowded cast however, Eva Green is easily the standout in the performance department, giving a profound portrayal as the titular supporting entity.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a slick dark fantasy spectacle that is gracefully held up by Tim Burton's signature visual appeal above Jane Goldman's blemished screenplay. In fair words, Tim Burton's effort on rendering Ransom Riggs's popular source material come to somewhat satisfying results, even if it falls deep under the flairs of Burton's magnums opuses.

Jake (Asa Butterfield) is an outcast teenager that adores his grandfather Abraham 'Abe' Portman (Terence Stamp) that used to tell stories of the orphanage in Wales where he was raised to him. When Abe is murdered in his house in Florida and has his eyes removes, Jake sees a monster and his parents take him to a psychologist. Jake asks to go to Wales to visit the orphanage and his psychologist agrees. His father Franklin Portman (Chris O'Dowd) travels with him to Wales and Jake discovers that the orphanage was bombed in 1943 by the Germans. When he decides to visit the ruins of the orphanage again, Abe finds a girl and soon he learns that the orphanage, the headmaster Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and the children still exist trapped in a time loop. But they are in danger since monsters are hunting them down. And Jake has the gift of seeing monsters. What will Jake do?

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" is a delightful original adventure directed by Tim Burton. The fantasy is a sort of X-Men and is highly entertaining with lovely characters and evil villains. Despite the confused idea of time loops, the film entertains adults and children. My vote is eight.

Title (Brzil):"O Orfanato da Srta. Peregrine Para Crianças Peculiares" ("The Orphanage of Miss Peregrine for Peculiar Children")

Jake (Asa Butterfield) is an outsider Florida teen. His grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp) used to babysit him telling him about Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) who ran a home for peculiar children in WWII Wales. Now, Abe is believed to have dementia battling non-existent monsters. With his dying words, Abe tells Jake to go to the Loop and September 3, 1943. Jake and his father Franklin (Chris O'Dowd) travel to Cairnholm in Wales on the advise of psychiatrist Dr. Golan (Allison Janney). Jake goes to see the children's home to find it ruined after getting bombed by the German on that 1943 night. He encounters the peculiar children who take him through a cave and back to that 1943 day. Miss Peregrine had created a time loop on that day for her children to live. They are hunted by Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) and the other Hollows. They eat the children's eyes to keep some aspects of their humanity while other Hollows have turned into roving monsters. Miss Avocet (Judi Dench) is a Ymbryne like Miss Peregrine who can transform into birds and save peculiar children in their time loops. Mr. Barron experiments on them to find immortality. He had found Avocet and consumed her children.

This is an imaginative world from the book and the vision of director Tim Burton. The story is a bit too jam packed. There are a lot of exposition scenes. There is a big important one to start the second half. I can't help but wonder if it's enough for the children to battle one monster as a first movie. The sequels could explain everything afterwards. It would be much simpler and more compelling. When the first monster invades the children's home, it is horrifying. It is as scary as a traditional horror movie. The eye eating scene is creepier than many horror-porns. The monster seems unbeatable but then this idea changes. The children with their powers seems perfectly capable of defeating the Hollows which puts the whole idea of the scary invincible monsters into question. This is a terrific world coupling Harry Potter and X-Men that Burton has envisioned. The story does have some deficiencies.