“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is peculiarly cold and distant.

Blame, or credit, director Tim Burton and the screenplay by Jane Goldman (“X-Men: First Class,” 2011) based on the novel by Ransom Riggs.

With a cast of unusual-looking children (from Great Britain), all watched over with loving menace by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green, magnificent, chewing every scenery in sight), Burton moves the actors from set to set like so many pieces on a chess board. Burton is grandmaster, albeit with too much flash.

The film is a kind of “Tim Burton’s Films Greatest Hits”: topiaries (“Edward Scissorhands,” 1990), a dinner table scene (“Beetlejuice,” 1988), for example. There are homages or rip-offs of “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963) in a skeletons battle scene and Alfred Hitchcock “Stranger On A Train” (1951) for the Blackpool, England, seaside amusement park carousel scene, complete with a Hitchcockian cameo by Burton on one of the rides.

The “Family” film really isn’t. Some images, those of the monsters, called Hollowgasts or “Hollows,” and their activities, are startling, even for adults. Spoiler alert, if you haven’t read the book: The monsters eat eyeballs. And they are shown eating eyeballs with snappy, lengthy, snake-like tongues.

The children, Ella Purnell (remarkable as Emma), Finlay MacMillan (Enoch), Lauren McCrostie (lovely as Olive), Hayden Keeler-Stone (Horace), Georgia Pemberton (Fiona), Milo Parker (a wonderfully dour Hugh), Raffiella Chapman (Claire), Pixie Davies (Bronwyn), Cameron King (Millard), Joseph Odwell (Masked Ballerina No. 1) and Thomas Odwell (Masked Ballerina No. 2), are led by Jake (Asa Butterfield), who time-travels through a “loop” between present-day (2016) and Sept. 3, 1943, where and when Miss Peregrine and her home and children exist. Jake can see the Hollows. Others cannot.

The cast includes: Samuel L. Jackson (deliciously over the top as Barron, a “Wight,” an arch villain), Judi Dench (Miss Avocet), Allison Janney (Dr. Golan), Chris O’Dowd (Jake’s father, Frank), Terence Stamp (memorable as Jake’s grandfather, who told him the Miss Peregrine stories).

With so many children, 11 by my count, and other characters in the movie, plus action to advance the story, character development is at a premium.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is hit and miss, mostly miss.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,”MPAA Rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13.) for intense sequences of fantasy action-violence and peril; Genre: Adventure, Family, Drama; Run time: 2 hrs., 7 mins.; Distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Credit Readers Anonymous:“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” was filmed in England, Belgium and Florida.

Box Office,Oct. 7: “The Girl on the Train” rode to No. 1, opening with $24.6 million, passing “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” which dropped to No. 2 with $15 million, $51 million, two weeks;

3. “Deepwater Horizon,” $11.7 million, $38.5 million, two weeks; 4. “The Magnificent Seven,” $9.1 million, $75.9 million, three weeks; 5. “Storks,” $8.4 million, $50.1 million, three weeks; 6. “The Birth of a Nation,” $7.1 million; 7. “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” $6.9 million; 8. “Sully,” $5.2 million, $113.4 million, five weeks; 9. “Masterminds,” $4.1 million, $12.7 million, two weeks; 10. “Queen of Katwe,” $1.6 million, $5.3 million, three weeks.

Unreel,Oct. 14:

“The Accountant,”R: Gavin O’Connor directs Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons and Jon Bernthal in the crime thriller about a math genius who juggles the books before the Treasury Department intervenes.

“Kevin Hart: What Now?,”R: Leslie Small and Tim Story directs Kevin Hart, Halle Berry and Don Cheadle in a documentary based on Hart’s performance before 50,000 at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

“Max Steel,”PG-13: Stewart Hendler directs Ben Winchell, Josh Brener, Maria Bello and Andy Garcia in the science-fiction film about teenager Max McGrath and his alien companion Steel, who become the superhero Max Steel.

“Certain Women,”R: Kelly Reichardt directs Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern and James Le Gros in the drama about three women in small-town America.

Two Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes