A date with Tim Burton isn't what it used to be; it hasn't been for a long time. The outrageous visionary who took us to amazing places that can only be described as cinematic nirvana, with titles such as "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," to name my favorites, seems now permanently stuck in a slump the size of Osaka Castle.

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" is Burton's latest, and apart from the obviously huge expense tag on production values and a glittering cast headed off by current Soulful Teen No. 1 Asa Butterfield, there's really not much to get excited about here. Could it be the fault of the young-adult novel authored by Ransom Riggs on which the story is based and which (according to online accounts) isn't really up Burton's alley? Or was it Burton's rumored break-up with longtime partner Helena Bonham Carter, who had originally been cast to play Miss Peregrine? Whatever the case, the question "Why?" kept popping up to distract me when I should have been absorbed in the story and getting lost in the visuals.

Still, think of the enormous difficulty of any whimsical or fantastical YA-targeted film that deploys real actors instead of anime characters. They run the huge risk of not turning out to be one of two things — "Harry Potter" or "Hunger Games" — and though "Miss Peregrine" adroitly dips into these for inspiration and derivation, it fails to promote its own unique branding, as they say in marketing departments.