Not going to lie, when I was on my way to see 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children', I wasn't expecting much. I'm not a fan of Tim Burton's latest films. Though I did like 'Frankenweenie' and I've yet to see 'Big Eyes', his other post-2010 films have been either too stupid or too fake, being chocked full of CGI.
Now I don't hate CGI, but too much of it can cause people to not take the story seriously enough, as they are being constantly reminded that this is a film and it isn't real. Therefore you shouldn't care about the story, when I do want to care and feel for the story and characters!
'Miss Peregrine' has been marketed a lot in the UK. The snippets I've seen from the trailer looked promising, and the CGI didn't look so obvious, which comes to show that 3D artists are getting better in turning our fantasies into reality. I won't talk about the story since you should find that out for yourselves, but the visual effects is worth mentioning on this blog.
THIS MOVIE GAVE ME NIGHTMARES. But in a good way, because it's better than I expected. The CGI is this film (while you can still tell it's CGI) is much more refined and rendered than in Tim Burton's previous films. Unlike in 'Alice in Wonderland' where everything besides the characters is made from CGI, the crew have actually gone to the trouble of making real life sets for us! SET DESIGNERS AND MODELLERS STILL EXIST! Every set looks like an art exhibition, every scene filmed outside has dark and gritty cinematography, and the CGI is nothing more than effects which adds to the visual eye-candy of the story! And yes, this film has some pretty damn impressive traditional Tim Burton eye-candy for 'Beetlejuice' fans out there! This is what CGI is meant to be, something which makes the film look better than it already does instead of being a shortcut to finishing the film earlier.
That's all very well, but what about the CGI additions to the characters? They are slightly less rendered than the background effects but still impressive enough to freak you out! You see, not a lot of the main characters actually have CGI additions to them! There's an invisible boy that's done well, Miss Peregrine herself turns into a bird which is shown on screen for 5 seconds…and that's really it! Except for some certain nightmarish characters. The villains of the movie, though I won't give away who they really are, are monsters who feed on peculiar children. They are made entirely out of CGI but really, nobody cares about that because holy **** , they are terrifying! Okay maybe they won't be terrifying to most of you who aren't easily freaked out, but the reason I was scared is because they reminded me of the Pale Man from 'Pan's Labyrinth', which is a monster that really did give me nightmares (sorry 14 year-old Louise!), except the monsters here were bigger in height and width (thanks for that Tim!). There are other characters that are made of CGI in the third act, but I won't say who they are. Let's just say it's the best 'Jason and the Argonauts' reference I've seen to date!
CGI aside, I want to talk about a completely different medium: stop motion. YES! There is stop motion in this film! It's only lasts for 1 minute but I didn't care, I was so happy to see it in a Tim Burton picture again! The stop motion on two dolls isn't like the stop motion films you see today, where they try so hard to look polished and smooth, like Laika, or even 'Frankenweenie'. I love that style of stop motion, but this style felt refreshing, like I was seeing the sandworm in 'Beetlejuice' for the first time! It is jerky and it appears to be done in 12 frames a second instead of 24, but it did look wonderful. To me, this segment is worth seeing the film.
'Miss Peregrine', while still not the best of Tim's films, is a gorgeous film for VFX buffs and Burton fans! It's an amazing sight to watch during October and I highly recommend this one for the Halloween period!
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