The Book Was Better…

It’s always a risk when a beloved book gets a big-screen adaptation, fans of Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children were not any exception. While minor details hit spot on, such as the casting of CERTAIN characters, such as Jake, Millard (amazing casting), and Enoch, it cannot be said the same for the rest, especially the Emma / Olive dilemma. The two very beloved characters were switched to the movie cause the main form of hatred for the movie.
when Jake arrives in Wales in the book, he sees Emma (at the time, just a mysterious stranger) and follows her, looking for information, and later, Emma and Millard capture him and bring him to the orphanage. In the movie, Jake meets Emma, Millard, and a few others when he explores the home, and together, they head to the bar and, then, the orphanage. There is no big capture, and while Jake is certainly confused what’s happening, he’s more intrigued than scared.
Later, in the book, Jake and his friends find a dead man named Martin and bring him back to life using Enoch’s powers, so that Martin can tell them about the wight who killed him. In the movie, Jake simply sees a dead man who’s lost his eyes and realises that it must be the act of a wight. One of the biggest changes comes afterwards, regarding Miss Peregrine’s capture. In the book, Jake and the others learn that Peregrine has been kidnapped by Barron, but in the movie, they are present and aware when Barron makes Peregrine transform into a bird and takes her away.
This is where the movie makes a few more significant changes. The book sees Barron throwing the cage containing Peregrine and Miss Avocet into the water, with Jake and Emma then going onto the sea to rescue the caregivers. Barron, then, is shot and killed by Jake. In the movie, this all happens differently. Jake and the others engage in a long battle with Barron and his fellow evildoers, chasing them all over a carnival and causing serious chaos. When Barron is killed, it’s by Jacob, yes, but only after several other attempts made by Jacob and his friends. Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet, meanwhile, are released out of their cages and go to rescue the other children, not thrown into the sea.
In the movie, unlike the book, Miss Peregrine is shown at the end to be able to transform back into her human form without any problem, and she travels with the children on their journey to find more wights and end the battle for good. Both the film and the novel see Jacob joining the children on the trip, but the movie shows more of the effort he makes to track them down, as well as the romance he’s developed with Emma. “We tried to keep it kind of subtle,” Burton says about the relationship. “There’s an unrequited, behind the eyes kind of look and feel to make those points come across.”

By Jackson Longstaff