Premise: While investigating his grandfather's suspicious death, a teen boy discovers a home in Whales where there are - well - peculiar children with special powers.
(Club 50) This is about as middle-tier Tim Burton as it gets. It doesn't match any of his early highs (Batman, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood), but it escapes from the calamity of his later works (Big Eyes, Dark Shadows). It's Tim Burton applying his skills to something completely harmless and making it a little more distinctive. I can't muster strong praise or criticism.
It's a real shame that Eva Green came along in this phase Burton's career. Imagine wait she could've been in a Batman. She looks like someone Burton designed and she has a lot of experience making any character pop (Remember how awesome she was in the otherwise forgotten 300: Rise of an Empire?). Ella Purnell is a similar Tim Burton creation in the Winona Ryder or even Bella Heathcoate mold. Asa Butterfield is a little less obvious except Burton loves scrawny little outsiders, which Butterfield plays as well as anyone. Honestly, my only casting complaint is that casting Chris O'Dowd to play an American visiting the U.K. made my head spin. Let the man be Irish!
The plot is a little thin. I definitely see that the appeal of the movie was the titular home and peculiar children. The time loop stuff I mostly just ignored. And it bothered the hell out of me that they kept trying to use a crossbow. Jesus, the movie is mostly set in 1943. That had pistols back then. Just use one.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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