So, I have been watching the film over and over again. It is one of those films that I found fascinating but couldn’t really figure out why they are so fascinating. It is dark, and not as grotesque as some of other Tim Burton’s movies. As a critic said, “the director is holding back, though, perhaps concerned that audiences might baulk at an overdose of odd”.

There are plot inconsistencies. But after watching it for the fourth time, I came to realize that most people who watch this film in the cinema wouldn’t really care why a box of animal hearts preserved in glass bottles of reddish embalming fluids could survive the bombing of an air raid. After all, if one can tolerate the fact that a few millimeter of aluminum can withhold the gravitational squeeze of a black hole in Interstellar, who would mind a little mismatch of mechanical strength here and there?

The same goes for time travel, I think. To quote another movie review, “Some of the film’s rules are definitely of the ‘I’m not going to put too much mental energy to make sure this all checks out…’”

Plot inconsistencies aside, the movie is so interesting perhaps because of the world it reveals. And it is only a small part of the world, on an island, in Wales. There are so many potentials to fill in individual stories that one almost demands a sequel immediately.

What’s more, there is – what other say is Tim Burton at his best – the epic battle of skeleton army vs. invisible monsters, in a children’s amusement park, with spectators, and fought with oars, buckets, fishing lines, and kitchen knives. Sanity is overrated anyway. It is good entertainment.

The feature image is from here.