“We cling to our fairy tales until the price of believing in them becomes too high” -Jake Portman. This iconic line perfectly describes the depth and pure magic of Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. The book was published in 2011 and is a New York Times Bestseller. Riggs has made the phenomenon into a trilogy, pleasing his eager fans. The novel received a lot of praise of its display of dark fantasy and the overwhelming eerie, yet intriguing, feel throughout the entire novel. Because of the trilogy’s massive following, Tim Burton and 20th Century Fox, jumped at the chance to bring this creepily mystical novel to the big screen. Many awaited the premiere with high expectations. Unfortunately, this movie was quite disappointing.

It opens up with a young Jake Portman having to leave work early to check on his grandfather, Abe Portman. Abe is said to have dementia and believes there are monsters coming after him. Jake gets to his grandfather’s house and finds Abe, bleeding, dying on the ground in the woods. Jake had a close relationship with his grandfather who always shared stories of how he grew up in a “special” children’s home on a Welsh Island where they fought and hid from monsters. Jake has a hard time mourning Abe’s death and persuades his dad to take him to the island in hopes of getting some type of peace. From there, the story truly begins. Jake goes on a adventure discovering the truth behind his grandfather’s past, who Miss Peregrine really is, and how he has something inside of him that will help piece everything together.

While Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is considered young adult fiction, it is not a child’s story. The intensity of the horror elements as well as the intricate and delicate relationships between the characters do not lend itself to a child’s bedtime story. But that’s exactly what Burton tried to make it. They took away the creepy factor of the book to make to make the movie lighter, and it became almost a joke. Instead of getting an eerie feeling, the audience laughed at the, well, weirdness of the movie. It was cringe-worthy how they portrayed the characters and the “peculiar-ness” of this fantasy world as a whole. There are a few scenes that could potentially scare small children, but truthfully, the story wasn’t meant for them anyway.

On a more positive note, the portrayal of Miss Peregrine was spot on. Eva Green gave an impeccable performance. Exuding the sophistication and pure intensity of Miss Peregrine, Green killed her on screen performance. Asa Butterfield, who played Jake, was almost the complete opposite. While he looked like Jake, his scenes lacked substance and emotion. Unfortunately, this is true for most of the movie. The movie has been described as being “all spectacle and little substance.”

For those who have read the book, this movie was a massive disappointment. Not only did one of the main character’s powers get switched, but the entire second half of the movie was not even close to how things happened in the book. Emma, one of the peculiar children on the island, was a previous love interest of Jake’s grandfather. In the book, she can shoot fire out of her hands. In the movie, however, Emma is “lighter than air,” and has to wear special shoes to keep her on the ground. Many suspect this is because being light and airy is aesthetically more pleasing and more romantic than fire powers. This is ironic though, as the movie did a very poor job at portraying the connection between Jake and Emma in the first place.

The changing of the second half of the movie made it impossible for them to make movies out of the second and third books. If they were to release a second movie, it would have to have a new plot line. This has angered Riggs’ fans, especially because it was completely unnecessary to change the story so much. This story has all the elements that Burton usually puts into his movies. He took a classic bed-time story, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and twisted it into haunting tale. However this time, with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Burton took a haunting tale and twisted it into a lighthearted bedtime story.

Overall, this movie is a watered-down thriller that lost touch with the original story. While some may have thoroughly enjoyed it, those who read the book were seriously disheartened.