MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (Rated PG-13)

With many films to his credit, ranging from “Edward Scissorhands” to “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” director Tim Burton is undeniably imaginative and visionary.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is definitely in his creative wheelhouse.

Based on the best-selling novel with the same title by author Ransom Riggs, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is a spooky, haunting and wonderful coming-of-age story that could only be fully realized by Tim Burton.

The titular heroine of the book and movie, Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), is the protector of the Peculiars and is similarly strange in that she resembles a dark Mary Poppins-like figure that is rather eccentric and fearless.

The story begins in South Florida where awkward teenager Jake (Asa Butterfield) is devoted to his dementia-suffering grandfather Abe Portman (Terence Stamp), who was always telling him wild stories about the orphanage in Wales run by the astonishing Miss Peregrine.

When his beloved grandfather dies mysteriously, Jake travels to the Welsh island with his father (Chris O’Dowd) to find out about Abe’s past and to discover if the home and its residents, which Abe talked about, really exist.

Thrust from a dull suburban existence in Florida to the surreal gateway of a world trapped in the World War II era, Jake goes from knowing the ordinary to having to leave all semblance of normal life behind.

At first, Jake is escorted around the island by surly hired guides, only to discover the decaying remains of Miss Peregrine’s Victorian castle. Left to his own devices, he soon discovers the Peculiars and a passageway to Miss Peregrine’s alternate universe.

Time travel takes Jack back to 1943, where Miss Peregrine and her charges live in a “time loop” of reliving the same day, similar to “Groundhog Day,” where the mission is to thwart a Nazi warplane from bombing the Home.

The residents at Miss Peregrine’s Home have their own peculiarities, mostly supernatural or incredible powers that set them apart from other kids, as if they candidates for Professor Xavier’s school in the “X-Men” franchise.
 
Jake finds a like-minded soul in Emma (Ella Purnell), a blonde beauty who has the ability to manipulate air and must wear a pair of heavy lead boots to keep from floating away. Their relationship blossoms into a sweet, naïve teenage love story.

Not so loving is Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), the oldest boy with a talent for giving life to inanimate objects, who distrusts the newcomer and begrudges the affection Emma shows for Jake.

Among the many children, Olive (Lauren McCrostie) is a free spirit who must wear long black gloves at all times because she ignites everything she touches. The cutest kid might be the Shirley Temple-look alike who has sharp teeth on the back of her neck.

The central villain is Samuel L. Jackson’s Barron, who commands an army of invisible skeletal monsters that only Jake can see. His mission is to destroy all the children for the odd purposes of consuming their eyeballs.

Consistent with Tim Burton’s darker material, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” though stunning in its surreal imagery, has plenty of nightmarish visuals that might be too much for the very young to handle.

For all others, including teenagers and adults, the twisted fairytale with creepy moments is equal parts entertaining and fascinating as only the creator of “Beetlejuice” could conjure.

TV CORNER: 'WESTWORLD' ON HBO

More than 40 years have passed since Yul Brynner starred as a robotic gunslinger in “Westworld,” and now a modernized but still Old West fantasy world based on the Michael Crichton novel runs on HBO for 10 episodes.

In HBO’s “Westworld,” under the autocratic rule of theme park founder Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the very wealthy are willing to pay top dollar to share Wild West adventures with android “hosts.”

Visitors to the Westworld playground indulge in every appetite, no matter how noble or depraved. No wonder these fantasies include gunfights, drinking and gambling, and visits to the brothel run by Maeve (Thandie Newton).

The virtual reality of Westworld, staged with Old West authenticity, includes fascinating characters which keep you guessing as to whether they are “guests” or “hosts.”

Rancher’s daughter Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) begins to discover that her idyllic existence is a carefully constructed lie.

James Marsden’s charming Teddy is handy with a revolver, but the Man in Black (Ed Harris) distills the essence of pure villainy.

More importantly, the Man in Black speaks on more than one occasion about the fact that “there’s a deeper level to this game,” and the audience, much like this character, will be seeking this greater truth over the run of this science-fiction Western.

Another point of fascination with Dr. Ford’s fantasyland is that incidents of aberrant behavior cropping up in some recently re-coded hosts lead to top programmer Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) bickering with staff members.

“Westworld” requires attention to details, such as the meaning of one host having an unscripted encounter with an artifact from the outside world. By the second episode, tension is noticeably rising inside and out of the park and you may wish to stick with this series to the end.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.